Since 2021, Agriterra is a major partner of SNV in the PADANE Project in Burundi. The project, which aims to improve the living conditions of agricultural households, women, young people, and market actors through increased incomes, job creation for youth and women, food and nutritional security, and resilience to climate change, is set to end in December 2024.
Agriterra is active in Gitega, Makamba and Rumonge Provinces. Currently, more than 3000 farmers in 50 agricultural cooperatives have benefited from Agriterra's highly qualified services and experience. These services include trainings, different advisory services, cooperative assessment and scoping analysis, cooperative structuring advice, local peer-to-peer exchanges, Good Agricultural Practices, access to finance and market, access to various inputs and more.
One of the farmers who benefited from the PADANE Project is Gloriose Ndayishimiye. She is 39 years old and lives with her husband and four children in the village Kazirabageni in the province Makamba. Gloriose farms patchouli, cassava and palm oil. She also raises 30 chickens and 8 goats.
Gloriose is the chairperson of the Board of Directors for the cooperative DUSHIGIKIRANE MU BWOROZI BW’INKOKO KAZIRABAGENI, which means ‘we assist ourselves for breeding in the Kazirabageni Village’. This cooperative has 30 members, including 17 men and 13 women. She has been a member since its inception in 2021 and became a founding member to access quality inputs for chicken breeding.
Before the PADANE Project, many households in Kazirabageni kept traditional chicken, but breeders and customers lacked egg production. If someone needed eggs for their children, they couldn’t find it in the village and had to travel and buy them in the Nyanzal-Lac center.
At that time Gloriose’s husband was traveling abroad (to Tanzania). They had no animals, their land for crops was too small and their food security was poor before the project. Gloriose produced patchouli, but on a small plot (20 acres).
Now Gloriose has 30 chickens of different generations, among them 12 chickens producing eggs. Around 10-12 eggs are obtained per day. The family can eat 3-4 eggs per day and the remaining 8-9 eggs are sold for income. At a unit price of BIF 600, her daily earnings from egg sales range between BIF 4800-5400. In addition, she owns 8 goats and a machine to process maize, cassava and rice. So, the income is increasing in Gloriose’s family and also in other chicken-breeding families in Kazirabageni.
The most significant change for Gloriose and other cooperative members is the overall enhancement of household living conditions. Incomes have risen, food security has improved, and their efforts in chicken breeding and raising other small animals are flourishing.. This progress is largely due to the cooperative's support in providing quality inputs to both members and non-members.
Now children, women and other members in the households can eat or buy the eggs whenever they want. Additionally, people from surrounding villages come to Kazirabageni to buy chickens and eggs. The cooperative is now bringing sustainable development through chicken breeding. It's a high change and also food security is improving.
Chairperson Gloriose stated that 28/30 members and 54 non-members received similar services from the cooperative, leading to various levels of household improvement.
Gloriose is among those who have made the most substantial changes. And she has ambitions to develop further. She aims to increase her number of chickens from 30 to 100 within 3 years and establish a modern farm in her village. She also plans to upgrade her current home to a larger and sturdier house for her family in the next three years.