East African Business Week (Kampala)
Gustave Ntaraka
23 July 2007
Bujumbura — Burundi is poised to transform its economy from subsistence agriculture to a market oriented economy that also takes environmental concerns into consideration.
Addressing the nation during the national forum on the general state of agriculture and livestock for sustainable food security in Burundi at Sun Safari Hotel in Bujumbura recently, Burundi's Second Vice President Mr. Gabriel Ntisezerana said the country should diversify agricultural and livestock production and control water use in order to transform from subsistence to market agriculture.
Other conditions that must be made conducive are regional integration, the development of communication infrastructure, he said.
According to Burundi's ministry of development planning and reconstruction, the agricultural sector accounts for 90% of employment in the country.
But majorly people practive subsistence farming, with only 15% of the total of farmers' produce accessing the market.
Information also indicates that agriculture accounts for 51% of the country's GDP.
Coffee and tea are the country's major foreign exchange earners.
The forum on the general state of agriculture and livestock is expected to be the platform for a new policy in the field. "Documents available are old and go back to the early 90's. We want to define strategies to implement new agricultural policies," said Mr. Jean De Dieu Mutabazi, an official of the agriculture and livestock ministry who is also part of the panel.
The COMESA delegation took advantage of the forum to sensitise Burundians on the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), a framework that sets the focus and priorities for sustainable agricultural development in Africa.
According to the delegation, CAADP is meant to promote economic growth based on agriculture to eliminate hunger, poverty, food insecurity and export growth.
The 13 -year civil war in the country seriously affected agriculture. To date, officials say, the sector gets less than 2% support of the national budget.
But participants at the forum vowed to ensure that agriculture gets what it deserves in the next financial year.
The forum was funded by the World Bank and was attended by participants from the public and private sector as well as donors and COMESA representatives.
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