Improve economic viability of farmers

1. Improve economic viability of farmers An introduction to the Burundi case April 13, 2012 Hanneke Heesmans and Christy van Beek

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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).

5. the potential for yield increase is enormous

6. 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.

7. 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

8. Approach: Reduce production risks • Micro-credits and insurances • Adaptation to the market through storage (hangars) Capacity building Health risk Micro-finance:Micro credit & Micro-insurance Property risk (agriculture)

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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

12. Concept of the project Economic viability and environmental robustness Increase productivity through uptake of best practices Refugees and residents Farm Conducive Environment Agro-ecological and socio-economic environment Make farmers entrepreneurs: access to inputs and quantitative understanding Right practice on right place.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. Thank you for your attention Hanneke.heesmans@wur.nl