FAO launches 2004 agricultural campaign

The UN Food and Agriculture Programme (FAO) has launched its 2004 agricultural campaign in Burundi, targeting the most vulnerable of the country's population with a major seeds and tools distribution, the agency told IRIN on Friday.

The FAO's emergency operations unit said some 210,900 vulnerable households - equivalent to roughly 14.7 percent of Burundi's total population - in the country's 17 provinces will receive a kit containing 8.3 kg of bean seed, 2.5 kg of corn seed and 10 g of vegetable seed. During the same campaign, some 95,800 vulnerable households will receive a hoe. The FAO also plans to distribute sorghum seed in December.

In an effort to prevent the seeds from being eaten before they were planted, FAO said a 20-day food ration would be delivered to some 155,500 households in 11 provinces.

Saying that it remained "very worried" by the level of food insecurity nationwide, due to continued fighting across the country, FAO said that the anticipated December 2003 harvest of an estimated 18,000 mt of beans, 17,000 mt of corn and 8,000 mt of vegetables from the distributed seeds would cover 30 percent to 40 percent of anticipated household food shortages.