Eric Nduwarugira, Nepomuscene Ntukamazina, Blaise Ndabashize, Patricia Onyango, Eileen Nchanji and Jean Claude Rubyogo
Common beans are a major food and cash crop for more than 90% of smallholder farmers in Burundi. However, access to quality seed of improved bean varieties and related services remains a challenge in Burundi which does not have a single seed company. The Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU) in partnership with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance) through the Pan- Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) embarked on the development of local seed entrepreneurs particularly women to produce and market quality seed bundled with other related services and inputs. Ms Kabirori Regine is one of these local entrepreneurs; a farmer from Kirundo province who has been growing beans to feed her family for a long time. Although she could find bean seed to grow from the local market, she could not differentiate the bean varieties a nor their attributes. Often, she only found out – at harvest time – that her bean was of mixed varieties, the yield was low, and this mixed beans often fetched low prices at the market.
In 2016, a chance meeting with Mr Sizibera Juvenal, the president of Terimbere Murimyi, a bean-growing cooperative changed a lot for Regine. When he heard her lamenting on the state of her bean yield, he offered to link her with bean researchers at ISABU, who provided her with some technical advice on how to improve her bean production. The technicians at ISABU carried out demonstration of new varieties in her different farm. She noticed significant differences in yield from the beans she grew particularly the new bean varieties. The new varieties were early maturity, large grain size etc, traits that are most preferred. Subsequently, ISABU team advised her where to buy good quality seeds. Initially, she was producing bean seed and selling to her neighbors. For instance, before 2016, she produced 1.25 tons of bean seed on her four-hectare farm. The success in seed business was evident as the seed demand of improved bean varieties increased. Due to the demand, she rented other farms from her neighbors to grow more and sold more seed to farmers’ organizations in distant communes, NGOs and other development partners. For instance, in 2021 she produced and supplied 86.7 tons of certified bean seed (see photo 1). Using seed business experience from beans, she decided to expand to other crops among them maize and rice. In 2021, she produced 20.1 and 12.4 tons of certified seed of open pollinated maize and rice improved varieties respectively.
Currently, she sells quality bean seed to other seed producers at US$ 85 cents per kg compared to the grain sold for home consumption at US$ 60 cents per kg. She is making a good profit out of the beans.
After a significant increase in her production, she noticed another problem; the beans in her store were damaged by bruchids and weevils. She consulted ISABU again, and together with personnel from the Purdue University and the MINEAGRI, offered her capacity-building training on bean storage. Regine attended a training on the use of Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags for bean storage. These bags are triple-layered, airtight, and sealed, preventing insects from burrowing into the seed.
At the start, she bought five PICS bags and used them on the 2019 harvest. Within six months, she was surprised to find that none of the bean seeds had been attacked by bruchid. This was proof enough for her to invest in more bags. She not only uses the bags on beans but other crops such as maize and rice.
The profit she made from selling seed was used to buy two cows, eight goats and four pigs to include in her farm. She also paid her daughter’s university fees and built her own store for the grains. Today, she supplies seed of new varieties including higher iron bean seed to 150 smallholder farmers (98 women and 2 men) in her community. In her farming community and beyond, she is well known seed and input supplier. Because harvest losses are severe during bean storage, ISABU, the Purdue University-PICS team and the Alliance through PABRA together with the Government of Burundi came in partnership to promote the use of PICS bags to more farmers in the country. Despite the promotion of the bags, most farmers could not afford them. The government of Burundi went to the drawing board after an encounter with Regine and other agri-preneurs who had used the PICS bags and their harvests benefited a lot. The government through a policy change, made the bags tax-free, by signing an agreement with the Tanzania Portland Cement Company (TPCC), a private enterprise importing the bags from Global PICS. Previously, each bag cost about US$ 4.3, but through this incentive from the extension services at the Bureau de la Direction Provinciale de l’Environnement, Agriculture et de l’Elevage, the cost reduced to US$ 2.90, attracting more farmers to buy and save their harvest.
Working with several agri-preneurs like Regina, ISABU and extension services held demonstration and agronomic trainings on how to grow improved bean varieties and use PICS bags to prevent seed/grain damage across Burundi. These trainings continue to be delivered, together with advice on good agricultural practices on improving bean production, including use of mineral fertilizer, organic manure, pest and disease control, gender, nutrition and marketing information. She is now planning to register her seed business as seed company.
Empowering women entrepreneurs like Regine has helped them to increase crop productivity and seed production beyond beans, improve their incomes and family livelihoods while delivering quality agri-services, supporting their communities and raising their social status (see photo 2).