FAO emergency coordination unit launches campaign

FAO, through its emergency coordination unit, launched a six-week countrywide “seeds and tools” distribution in Burundi for the season 2001 A on 11 September. Starting with the province of Bujumbura Rural, the US $2 million campaign, in coordination with 11 NGOs and the Red Cross of Burundi with support from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Cresent (IFRC), targeted more than 300,000 vulnerable households throughout the country with more than 3,000 mt bean seeds, 187,000 hoes and one mt of vegetable seeds.

The FAO announcement said target beneficiaries were principally farmers badly affected by the latest drought which struck the country and farmers suffering from insecurity in their provinces as well as the displaced. It went on to add that the FAO emergency coordination unit, assisted by its partners, carried out three seed and tool distribution campaigns a year for each of the planting seasons A, B, and C. This project, in addition to the FAO emergency coodination unit, was financed by the governments of Belgium, Netherlands, USA and UK., the announcement said.