Scarcity and surfeit : the ecology of Africa's conflicts

Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 129

over-exploitation of the soil has drastically reduced per capita production of

food as well as of cash crops. This is an indicator of the environmental

decline. This has been accentuated by the intensive use of fertilizers in the

production of cash crops, principally tea and coffee, some of the most fertil-

izer-intensive crops. The net effect has been felt more heavily in the decline

of food production.

The follow in^ table illustrates the decline over the vears of kev cash cro~s

in Burundi between 1994 and 1998.

Table 2: Cash crop production

Source: Stofistics and Agriculhlro! information Deportment. 1999

Year

Coffee [tons)

Tea [tons)

Cotton groins

(tonsl

Reasons for the decrease in coffee production are multiple. During the peri-
od after the widespread outbreak of the civil war in 1993 the population
undertook to destroy coffee plantations and replace them with food crops.
Coffee has always been perceived by the producers, who were essentially
Hutu, as a means of central taxation of their labour, first to the colonial
authority and later to the post-independence governments, and not as a
means of economic self-advancement. In the post-independence period, Hutu
coffee growers continue to view coffee mainly as a source of income for local
authorities, which for the last 40 years or so have been Tutsi.
Political propaganda in 1992 strongly harped on this feeling. Following the
assassination of President Ndadaye (Hutu) in 1993. Hutus undertook to
destroy coffee plantations in retaliation so that the Tutsi group who had just
assassinated the president should not benefit from the wealth generated by
the coffee industry. As a result. over 1 924 841 coffee trees were destroyed.
Continued pressure on limited land and increased fragmentation have also
ensured that food crops replace coffee trees.
The decline in coffee production can also be attributed to the reduction of
fields sewn, the destruction and/or the abandonment of related infrastmc-
ture and production units, lack of agricultural fertilizers following the eco-
nomic embargo (1996-1998) and low performances of support services.
Table 3 corroborates the declining trends of cash crop production per capita.

1994

4 1 000

Not available

4900

1595

28 000

6900

4600

1596

26 000

5800

2600

1597

20 000

No! ovoi!ob!e

2303

1598

17033

56iX

340;)