COLEACP supports organic agriculture in the Great Lakes region of Africa

22 April 2014. Fourteen organic agriculture supervisors were recently trained by COLEACP in Bujumbura (Burundi). The participants represented three national organisations: Rwanda Organic Agriculture Movement (ROAM), Burundi Organic Agricultural Movement (BOAM), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Organic Agriculture Movement.

Tharcisse Nziganasbo, Passion fruit grower 

in Banga, Burundi show us his plantation. 

Adrien Sibomana from BOAM in the background

COLEACP has been working with BOAM under the PIP programme since July 2013. Eager to boost the fruit and vegetable exports of its 675 members, BOAM is organised into cooperatives that produce over 2,000 tonnes of passion fruit, strawberries, pineapples, Japanese plums, bananas, tangerines, coffee, cassava, beans, rice per year.

As part of this cooperation programme, in January 2014 supervisors from Burundi, Rwanda and Congo (the Kivu provinces) took part in training that focused on the technical aspects of organic crops – vegetables and fruit – for local markets. In line with other training-of-trainers initiatives, it also involved developing participants’ teaching skills, based on tools developed by COLEACP (including exercises and good practice guides).

The goal of the training was to provide supervisors with the knowledge and tools they need to fulfil their task of providing support to producers by raising awareness and sharing good practices in the fields of organic farming and food safety.