IMPROVING AFRICAN AGRICULTURE SPENDING ... - Africa Adapt

IMPROVING BURUNDI’S PUBLIC AGRICULTURE SPENDING
Following the GPRSF, the government developed a National Agricultural Strategy (Stratégie Agricole
Nationale) for 2008-15 - which aims to rehabilitate the agricultural sector, move away from subsistence
farming and achieve annual growth of 6 per cent or more. 24 In addition, the National Plan for Agricultural
Investment (Plan National d’Investissement Agricole) for 2012-17 is a framework for coordinating
investments in the agricultural sector aiming to ensure food security for all, increase household incomes
and create jobs. It identifies more than 15 agricultural value chains to be promoted, along with irrigation,
and the need to reform and build the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock – MINAGRIE
- to enable it to implement the new policies. 25 The Burundi National Programme on Food Security 2009-
2015 promotes eight sub-programmes: Sustainable management of natural resources; Intensive production
of food crops; Diversification of farming systems; Crop protection, processing and marketing; Nutrition;
Early Warning and Strategic Reserve Establishment; Support for procurement of inputs, micro-finance,
research, extension, and capacity building; and Implementation support. Finally, Burundi also produced
in 2007 its National Adaptation Plan of Action to Climate Change (Plan d’Action National d’Adaptation aux
Changements Climatiques). This highlights small farmers’ vulnerability to climate change, notably from land
and soil degradation, deforestation, erratic rainfall and rising average temperatures, and outlines a range of
government policy priorities to promote adaptation.
Donors play a critical role, funding nearly half of Burundi’s national budget and half its agriculture budget
in recent years. The largest donor, the World Bank, is providing $407 million during 2009-12, of which
$43 million is for agriculture. 26 Other key donors in the agricultural sector are the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Belgium. But a recent report for the Netherlands Embassy in Burundi
notes that ‘donor programs are highly fragmented and not well coordinated, apart from geographic division
of labour.’ 27
Static food production
Despite government commitment and good policies on paper, however, overall food production in Burundi
is not improving much and government targets outlined in the GPRSF are being missed. For example,
the GPRSF had ambitious goals for the agricultural sector, calling for major production increases for rice,
wheat, bananas, coffee and tea, among others. It aimed to increase banana production – Burundi’s principal
crop – from 1.6 million tons in 2005 to 2.3 million tons in 2010. 28 Yet, as outlined in the table below, the latest
assessment of performance implementing the GPRSF notes that banana production has increased only
slightly during 2006-09. The GPRSF also called for an increase coffee production from 30,000 tons in 2006
to 60,000 tons in 2015. 29 During 2006-09, however, coffee production has fluctuated wildly.
Table 1: Food production during PRSP period
Food crops (in millions of tons) 2006 2007 2008 2009
Grains 282 290 290 298
Legumes 238 239 221 239
Roots and tubers 1,458 1,518 1,575 1,548
Bananas and plantains 1,663 1,709 1,760 1,806
Income crops (in tons)
Coffee 29,951 8,210 24,700 6,814
Tea 6,338 6,475 6,728 6,729
Cotton 1,750 2,870 2,887 2,547
Non-tradtitional crops - 246 763 727
Source: Republic of Burundi, Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Framework: Performance and Impact
Assessment, October 2010, p.38
12