01 February 2007
USAID Helps Burundi Go from Crisis to Recovery
Partnership for a Better Life
Burundi has made significant progress toward peace since civil conflict engulfed the country and uprooted nearly one-fifth of the population. Yet scars of war remain. During the long conflict, Burundian families lost breadwinners, land, possessions and livelihoods.
But for the past decade, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has played a key role in supporting the transition to peace, helping to stabilize the humanitarian situation and lay the foundation for a self-sustaining recovery.
The story of Agnes, a young woman in her early 20s, illustrates the struggle of Burundians who are affected by conflict. Along with more than 800,000 other Burundians, Agnes' family fled their farm in Makamba province and took refuge in camps in neighboring Tanzania. The family moved multiple times in search of food and economic opportunity, and, during this time, Agnes lost both her parents. When Agnes and her siblings returned to their home village, they discovered their father’s land had been taken, and they were forced to seek shelter with a neighbor.
Surviving with the support of family and friends and through assistance from relief agencies, Agnes lived from day to day, scavenging and unable to plan for the future.
This began to change in 2003 when a major armed opposition group made peace with the government of Burundi. As conflict decreased throughout most of the country, improved security allowed USAID to support agricultural and other economic activities that enabled Burundians such as Agnes to take charge of their lives again.
The first step in restoring self-reliance to the people of Burundi was helping them to grow their own food.
USAID supported food security projects through implementing partners across Burundi. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a USAID partner, provided recovering farmers with seeds and tools, including hoes, watering cans and wheelbarrows.
Another partner, Tearfund, helped farmers form local associations, which enabled them to support each other and learn from one another. Each association had a communal plot of land, used for training in agricultural methods to apply in individual fields. Given the shortage of land in Burundi, Tearfund and extension workers educated association members in intensive, sustainable farming methods, including organic manure and composting, fertilization, sowing in lines, intercropping and weeding, as well as drying, selecting and storing seeds.
With increased knowledge and agricultural tools, Agnes and other association members began to farm. Using high-quality seeds, they increased harvest yields 40 percent. The groups also significantly increased seed production. Initially hesitant to change to more laborious, time-consuming farming techniques, nearly two-thirds of the farmers implemented sustainable farming methods after they saw the success of the communal plot.
Tearfund also worked to improve local nutrition through support for visits from Burundian nutrition experts and distribution of vegetable seeds. A public health educator introduced components of a balanced diet and used cooking demonstrations with local foods to provide good diet examples.
After the association members had learned to share their experiences, Tearfund helped them plan, organize and budget for their small-scale agriculture projects. Twenty percent of association farmers created shops to sell food and palm oil, and some sold seeds or rented land and produced rice.
Agnes' newfound agricultural knowledge helped her support her family. Using money earned from seed sales, she was able to rent additional land and hire workers.
Agnes has grown from a destitute woman barely able to provide for the basic needs of her siblings into a successful head of household who is the elected secretary of her agricultural association and owns a plot of land.
Agnes now can look forward to the future, knowing that she can rely on herself, her family and her association to meet the challenges ahead.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
