Burundi's Food Supply Situation Improves

NAIROBI - Jul 3/01 - STAT -- The food supply situation in Burundi will improve following a relatively good 2001 B crop, according to participants in a recent joint mission with the Ministry of Agriculture, World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF.

Burundi's B crop is harvested during June and this harvest helped bring food crop production for 2001 close to the average total of the pre-crisis period, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said after analyzing the mission data. Increased seedings of roots and tubers were the main reason for the improvement.

Following the climatic changes in the last two years, farmers have heavily relied on roots and tuber crops such as cassava and sweet potato which require less farming and are more tolerant to drought conditions than beans, FAO said.

"This increase in production for 2001 is however misleading and will be hiding nutritional imbalances with respect to energy supply," FAO noted. It said the roots and tubers were poor in nutrients compared to cereals and legumes.

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