Burundi: Recent developments in agricultural research

Stads, Gert-Jan; Ndimurirwo, Leonidas. 2011. Burundi: Recent developments in agricultural research. ASTI Country Note. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153325

Burundi's agricultural sector employs close to 90 percent of the country's economically active population, represents approximately 50 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), and accounts for over 80 percent of exports (World Bank 2010; FAO 2009). However, structural constraints including low productivity, land fragmentation, weak water resource management, and processing and preservation problems impede agricultural growth. In addition, the civil war that shook the country in the 1990s negatively impacted the sector, including agricultural research and development (R&D) investment.