Burundi: the company FOMI is still struggling to produce sufficient chemical fertilizers

Farmers from different localities in Burundi are grumbling as they don’t have enough chemical fertilizers for cropping season A. Worse still, the company FOMI (organal-mineral fertilizers) in charge of the production and distribution of chemical fertilizers did not settle the issue of arrears of last year in quite a few provinces. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

In a meeting assessing the situation of cropping season A held recently in the political capital Gitega, the provincial officials in charge of agriculture and the heads of provinces expressed the lack of supply of chemical fertilizers ordered by farmers.

“[…], the company FOMI has so far not distributed all the quantities of fertilizers ordered. Every province shows a shortage of thousands of tons of fertilizer. This is a handicap for the agricultural production for season A”, the participants concluded.

In all, the arrears in chemical fertilizers that the FOMI company must supply are estimated at 3656 tons for cropping season A alone.

Hermenegilde Manyange, deputy head of FOMI explained this is due to the lack of foreign currency to import the raw material. But he says the company is hard at work to fulfill its task.

The Prime Minister who did not react to the problem stated by FOMI on the lack of foreign currency, called on all stakeholders to invest in putting an end to this situation.