Crop production not greatly affected by insecurity

Despite insecurity in several parts of Burundi, the situation did not hamper crop production too much during the 2001 B season, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said following a recent joint mission with the Ministry of Agriculture, WFP and UNICEF. The mission carried an assessment of crops and food for the 2001 B season (harvest in June). Farmers’ stocks of beans were relatively limited in most of the provinces, FAO noted. Many of the farmers bought seeds or were assisted through humanitarian aid. The FAO distributed 3,500 mt of bean seeds for this season. The FAO said mineral fertilisers remained relatively inaccessible to farmers. Pesticides too remained inaccessible, but “fortunately, there were little significant diseases during the season”.

Food crop production obtained for 2001 is close to the average total of the pre-crisis period, the FAO said. It attributed this to an increase in the planting of roots and tubers.
Following the climatic changes in the last two years, farmers have heavily relied on roots and tuber crops such as cassava and sweet potato which require less farming and are more tolerant to drought conditions than beans, FAO said. “This increase in production for 2001 is however misleading and will be hiding nutritional imbalances with respect to energy supply,” FAO noted. It said the roots and tubers were “poor in nutrients” compared to cereals and legumes.