improve economic viability of farmers an introduction to the burundi case april 13, 2012 hanneke...
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Improve economic viability of farmers
An introduction to the Burundi case
April 13, 2012
Hanneke Heesmans and Christy van Beek
Contents
Burundi: a country struggling with its post-war traumas
Project definition and objectives
Approach: economy meets health meets agriculture
Guiding principles
The concept of the project
Recent experiences
Burundi, a country with…
A history of violence between ethnic groups such as the Tutsi and Hutu people.
One of the lowest GDP per capita in the world A densely populated
country
Two periods of large scale displacement.
more than half a million refugees who returned to Burundi in the past 5-10 years.
Sharing land
These refugees are returning to their land...
... which is already (legally) occupied by residents.
A standoff is created.
Land can only be shared when both parties (refugees and residents) have equal benefits.
Land is scarce; the only way forward is to increase productivity (i.e. production per hectare).
the potential for yield increase is enormous
Problem definition and objectives
Social tension between groups because of increasing demands on limited resources.
Main objective: To reduce social tension by improving rural livelihoods.
●To improve agricultural productivity.
●To reduce production risks.
●To improve market diversification.
●To improve social cohesion.
Approach: Improve agricultural productivity
Information makes stakeholders ready to act:
Joint learning through quantified information on farm management and farm performance appeal to entrepreneurial skills.
Information ≈ motivation
Participative, evidence based and tailor made.
Feed-back workshops, policy recommendations, etc.
Adult literacy for ownership
Approach: Reduce production risks
Micro-credits and insurances
Health risk
Property risk (agriculture)
Capaci
ty
build
ing
Micro-finance:Micro credit &
Micro-insurance
Adaptation to the market through storage (hangars)
Approach: Market diversification
The right crop for the right place.
Huge diversification in agro-ecology.
At present: everybody is doing the same thing everywhere at the same time.
Periods with market overload or shortage.
Approach: to improve social cohesion
More stability (social balance)
Better health
Improved food security
Economic resilience
The improved incomes and health care will be financed and protected by micro insurance.
Know Your Farm: guiding principles
Farms are complex systems; mere single value chain approaches will not succeed.
At the end of the day only the overall farm results count for farmers.
However, there is a very poor quantitative understanding of farm management and farm performance.
Markets benefit from diversity, not from everybody doing the same thing everywhere.
Feed-your-family-first
Concept of the project
Economic viability and environmental robustness
Increase productivity through
uptake of best practices
Agro-ecological and socio-economic environment
Conducive Environment
Farm
Right practice on right place.
Make farmers entrepreneurs:
access to inputs and quantitative understanding
Refugees and residents
Recent experiences
ZOA initiated a project in which residents and refugees are rewarded with fertilizers, seeds and agronomic advices when they succeed in peaceful sharing.
Until now the project looks very promising (land is indeed peacefully shared), but it is also risky because of dependency on external inputs.
There is a need for a more profound approach in this project.
Making a change
Make packages of innovations; the problems are too complex to be solved by mono-disciplinary projects.
Include farmers in the process: learn by what you see with your own eyes.
