5.2 Nature of avocado production and processing in Giheta: A brief overview
5.1.5 Institutions
97
price more than other buying arrangements. However, this is becoming more difficult as there is competition due to many people entering the avocado business, especially from the collectors who supply the avocados to the retailers at Bujumbura. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, local farmers also now prefer to sell their avocados directly at the local market where they obtain higher prices. And finally, members of Shirukubute association do, sometimes, sell the avocados that they harvested from their own households’ trees.
Surprisingly, small-scale farmers do not sell the avocados at the Avocado Oil firm of Murayi as one would expect. Three main reasons were identified by farmers. First, farmers mentioned that small quantities of avocados from the small farms in this area were not bought by the firm when it started. At this time, the firm sought suppliers who were able to provide large supplies like one ton and above, of avocados. However, the firm recently started buying smaller quantities of the avocados as a supplier who meets the firm’s requirements could not be found in this area.
Second, the firm prefers “modern” varieties over the “traditional” ones, buying the former at 80 Fbu per one kg compared to between 40 Fbu and 60 Fbu for one kg of the “traditional” avocado varieties. This difference in price is because the varieties do not contain the same quantity of oil.
During our interview with the owner of the firm, he pointed out that he would need 50 kg of traditional avocados to produce one litre of oil whereas he only needs between 20 and 23 kg of the Hass and Fuertes varieties in order to produce the same quantity. Third, the firm does not pay cash for the avocados it purchases. Farmers wait some weeks before they can get their money.
All these factors have contributed to local small-scale farmers’ decision to sell their avocados at the local market or to the collectors rather than selling them to Murayi.
98
supported by a Swedish NGO called “Caritas Swedish26” which committed itself to supply all the materials needed such as the hoes, wheel barrows, sachets, and so forth for the grafting work and pay stipends to the members of the local association for encouragement. It also sponsored the training of some members of the association who, after they have obtained hard skills and knowledge in grafting, come back and train other members (this training takes place at one of the governmental agricultural research institutions called ISABU Bugarama where small-scale farmers acquire some hard skills in various farming activities through an intensive training for four days). The local administration provided a piece of land that the association can use for this project. The traditional avocados which are used for grafting are brought by members of the association from home and the root stocks are outsourced from ISABU Murongwe and are taken from two main avocado varieties - Fuertes and Hass. The association does not pay for these components as the ISABU Murongwe has an agreement with Swedish Caritas for supplying the avocado components for grafting to the association. Four stages are followed to produce the grafted avocado seedlings which can then be planted in the farms. The first stage consists of the preparation of the ground. The second stage consists of filling the small sachet bags with the soil.
The third stage consists of putting avocado seedlings in those small sachet bags filled with the soil. And the fourth stage consists of grafting. Fuertes and Hass are the two avocado varieties which are most often used for grafting. The whole process takes up to 6 months to be completed.
The process normally starts in August so that the grafted avocado seedlings could be ready for selling from January as avocados are basically planted during the rainy season. At the time of the field work in December 2009, the association had 10,800 grafted avocado seedlings of which half (5,000) would go to Swedish Caritas and another half (5,000) will be sold by the association as per agreement between these two business partners. The grafted avocados are sold within or/and outside Giheta district.
The second organization involved in the grafted avocado production in this area is a Roman Catholic Church Organization called “ODAG” – Organization de Development pour l’Arch- Diocese de Gitega. ODAG operates in three provinces which comprise the Arch-Diocese of
26Website for Caritas Swedish:
http://www.missioncouncil.se/sidorpaandrasprak/inenglish/memberorganisations/thecatholicchurchins weden.4.40f9f922109b64589f08000969.html
99
Gitega, namely, Gitega, Mwaro, and Karusi. It operates in both social and economic sectors. For the former, this organization is involved in health, education, housing and relief activities. For the latter, the organization is involved in agricultural sector mostly food security, infrastructural development, and micro-finance projects. The organization is managed by three structures: The general assembly, executive committee which is headed by the Arch-Bishop of the Arch-Diocese of Gitega himself, and the executive secretary. One of the main projects that the food Security department is currently working on is the multiplication of grafted avocado seedlings in the whole Arch-Diocese of Gitega. This project is sponsored by the Italian Council of Roman Catholic Bishops and will be run over a period of three years. The rationale for initiating this project consists of three main factors. First, from a food security perspective, it was thought that the project will boost the avocado production in this area, thereby contributing a great deal to the diet of the poor small farmers. Second, given the emerging market of avocados in this area because of the construction of the Avocado Oil firm of Murayi, it was believed that avocados can contribute greatly to increasing the income of the poor local small-scale farmers in this area.
Third, it was realized that the traditional avocados existing in this area are very old to the extent that they need to be replaced. When I visited the organization, the project was in its first operational year. The budget of one year is estimated at 21 Million Fbu. The project consists of two sites of which one is located at Gitega and another at Murayi - Giheta. Each site produced 25,000 grafted avocado seedlings. This means that 50,000 grafted avocado seedlings were produced in this project. ODAG does not intend to sell its grafted avocado seedlings to local farmers but rather it will distribute its grafted avocado seedlings to local “vulnerable” small-scale farmers for free. However, the strategy which will be used to carry out successfully such distribution is not yet finalized as the project is still at its early stage.
Thirdly, the Avocado oil plant of Murayi – Giheta has also invested in the expansion of grafted avocado farming in Giheta. The Avocado Oil Firm of Murayi started its operation in 2007. The firm has the capacity of using ten tons of avocados per a day and it has employed 64 workers including supervisors. All workers are trained at the firm and there is no particular level of education required to work at the firm. When I visited the firm during my field work, however, I found that the firm was not functioning. The main cause of that was the lack of the avocados. For instance, the stock had less than 50 kg of the avocados while the minimum quantity of avocados
100
needed per a day for the firm to function is one ton. As a result all workers had been sent home.
To mitigate the problem of insufficient quantity of the avocados, the owner of the firm has started a program of producing and distributing the grafted avocado varieties that he distributed to the local small-scale farmers. At the beginning of the last agricultural season in 2009, he distributed between 10 000 and 12 000 grafted avocado plants to the local farmers for free. He only gives the avocado seedlings to the local small-scale farmers who are in the associations and he hopes that the farmers will sell the avocados to the firm when the distributed avocado trees will start producing fruits. To the question of what would happen if the beneficiaries of these avocado plants decide otherwise and sell the fruits elsewhere; the owner of the firm responded that that is not a problem as the market operates in that way. Additionally, the local leaders have given him five hectares of the land in which he has established an orchard of grafted avocados.
Furthermore, the program of the president of Burundi in expanding the production of fruit trees throughout the country created a situation where more than 5,150 grafted avocado seedlings were planted in Giheta. All of these show that there might, quite possibly, be an overproduction of avocados in Giheta in the near future.