Dear readers,

Welcome to our agricultural newsletter No. 1 that the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of Burundi (ISABU) has just created.

Indeed, dear readers, the Institute felt the need to be very close to the beneficiaries and partners of agricultural research.

After recognizing that the exchange of information between ISABU and its environment is very weak, ISABU took the decision to create this bulletin and to make its website a dynamic website, meeting its needs in terms of external and internal communication, in order to improve its visibility with its partners and the general public.

Through this newsletter, we hope that our readers will have an opportunity to immerse themselves in the results of ISABU research and to pass on to researchers feedback on the constraints encountered during the transfer of new technologies in rural areas.

Moreover, the criticisms levelled by agricultural development officials in Burundi against ISABU show that they have only partial knowledge of the research results and the problems that the Institute faces. Therefore, this bulletin and the website will remove this ambiguity.

These two communication tools will be a channel for publishing and disseminating ISABU research results.

As part of the support of the cooperation of the Kingdom of Belgium through the Institutional and Organizational Support Program for the Agricultural Sector (PAIOSA), an internal and external communication strategy at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has been developed. It proposes for research to set up mechanisms that improve the management of information relating to agricultural research in Burundi.

This strategy should play the following roles:

− Provide researchers with access to scientific information concerning global research that is most relevant to the needs of the country;

− Ensure the exchange of information between researchers and users, in particular agri-farmers and extension agents, etc.

- Facilitate communication between research services and national planning authorities;

− Develop exchanges and the circulation of all information useful to the scientific and administrative functioning of the institution;

− Disseminate the results of national research.

To fulfill these roles, ISABU must improve its support services for the valorization of research results.

The main mission of the Training and Production of Extension Materials Component of ISABU is to facilitate the transfer of agricultural research results through the production of script-audio-visual materials essential to the achievement of the objectives of the Strategic Framework for Combating Poverty, Second Generation (CSLP II) in relation to the agricultural sector. The agricultural bulletin created today reinforces the transfer of new technologies developed by ISABU.

Since the main mission of this bulletin is the dissemination of the results developed by agricultural research in Burundi, ISABU, as publisher of this bulletin, informs the other national institutions responsible for research that their contributions to this newsletter are welcome.

The General Management of ISABU will positively accept constructive criticism in this first newsletter and will take them into account for future issues. She wishes you a good read.

 

The Director General of ISABU

Ir Dieudonné NAHIMANA