RUYIGI March 12nd (ABP) – The beneficiaries of development projects initiated by the NGO UCODE-AMR in the Cankuzo and Ruyigi provinces are appealing to the government and NGOs working in Burundi to support them so that they can arrive at perpetuating the knowledge gained from those projects.
Those former beneficiaries launch this appeal while this NGO has just closed its projects in the Cendajuru commune of Cankuzo province and Gisuru and Kinyinya communes of Ruyigi province. Those people have just spent five years with the assistance and support of the NGO UCODE-AMR in the PASAFED-ALFA projects which consisted of andragogy (adult literacy), and PADASIO, which consisted of the training of farmers and stockbreeders to have multipliers of seeds certified by the National Seed Certification Authority (ONCCS) and the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of Burundi (ISABU).
The project also accompanied them with technical and material support on the field in the fields. The seeds that were targeted were banana, beans, cassava, peanuts and maize. Other crops traditionally known in Burundi that were beginning to be forgotten were reproduced as part of that project. These are the traditional cocoyam (amaganuza), cowpea (inkore), yam (ibisunzu), pigeon pea (intengwa) and sorghum (amasaka).
Stockbreeders also had animals to help with plowing and transportation. Those people of Cankuzo and Ruyigi communes are satisfied with the step they have already reached in development. The same people, who are nevertheless worried about the sustainability of the achievements of those projects that have just ended, with the definitive departure of that NGO, ask the Burundi government and the NGOs working in Burundi to provide them with support to expand their action and extend their knowledge to communities that have not been fortunate enough to benefit from UCODE-AMR support.
The administrative persons in authority of those communes also say they are satisfied with the achievements of that NGO and ask those beneficiaries to make good use of the achievements of those projects, while waiting for a possible intervener to answer their call. At the end of the activities of those projects in those three communes, 163 seed multipliers have already received ONCCS certification and 5,383 have received certificates from that NGO, in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education. More than 80% of those laureates are female.