Burundi to enhance food security with OFID loan

OFID Director-General Mr Suleiman J Al-Herbish and HE Dr Dr Edouard Bizimana, Ambassador of Burundi to Germany.

October 30, 2014, Vienna, Austria. OFID has signed a US$20m loan agreement with Burundi for a program that will help boost food security and raise farmers' incomes. Around 400,000 people are expected to directly benefit from the program. The agreement was signed by OFID Director-General Mr Suleiman J Al-Herbish and HE Dr Dr Edouard Bizimana, Ambassador of Burundi to Germany.

The program is a joint OFID/IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) initiative aimed at supporting Burundian government's agriculture development strategies. Activities will be carried out in two provinces in the Moso region (Ruyigi and Rutana) and three in the Imbo region (Cibitoke, Bujumbura Rural and Bubanza). The regions are populated by around 2.3 million people, where nearly 95% are engaged in subsistence agriculture and livestock-rearing.

Activities will include rehabilitation of irrigation schemes for rice production and development of agricultural land. Once completed, yields per hectare are expected to increase by around 80%.

Also planned is the improvement of rural feeder roads to open up production zones. Another program component will develop agricultural value chains.

OFID and Burundi have been development partners for nearly 40 years. The institution has approved over US$160m in loans, the majority of which supported transportation and agriculture-related projects. In July, OFID signed a US$11.22m loan agreement with the country to provide debt relief under the HIPC initiative.