The CATALIST project will help maintain biodiversity, improve environmental management, intensify agricultural productivity, and develop markets for both agricultural inputs and the crops that poor farmers produce, in the Great Lakes region.Local people, refugees, and demobilized ex-combatants will be employed in labor-intensive public works to plant trees and build terraces and roads. The goal is to accelerate economic growth, reduce poverty, and promote peace and stability, partly by establishing or strengthening the capacities of farmer and agri-input dealer organizations. IFDC will work through farmers' organizations, several national and international NGOs, the private sector, donors, and other consortia.
Dr. Henk Breman, an IFDC agronomist and environmental specialist with two decades of experience working with African farmers, arrived in Rwanda to launch the project in early October.
"Soil nutrient depletion in the Great Lakes region is among the world's highest," Breman says. "From 80 to 135 kilograms of plant nutrients are lost from each hectare of land yearlyand the use of mineral fertilizers, which can replenish those lost plant nutrients, is among the world's lowest."
Most of the Great Lakes population survives on less than US $0.65 a day, says Dr. Balu Bumb, IFDC Economist and Program Leader for Policy, Trade, and Markets. The average farm size is less than 1 hectare. There are few alternatives to farming for rural employment. Few yield-increasing technologies, such as improved seeds, have been introduced. Fertilizer use is 3-4 kilograms per hectare (kg/ha). In comparison, the world use is 93 kg/ha, and farmers in the "Green Revolution" countries of Asia use 100 to 150 kg/ha.
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Contact: Thomas R. Hargrove
thargrove@ifdc.org
256-381-6600
IFDC
11-Dec-2006