Scarcity and surfeit : the ecology of Africa's conflicts

138 Scarcity and Surfeit

declined export prices. This was augmented with the European Union
STABEX facility under the Lome Convention. The excess revenue is banked
into deposit accounts in the name and under the control of OCIBU. This
arrangement has been abused by the government during periods of econom-
ic hardship. Thus,

"While the financing of deficits of the ... [subsector] and the replenish-

ment of the reserve account have been secured either through budget-

ary transfers or donor support, the redistribution of surplus remains an

unresolved issue ... in particular, especially during periods of tight

budgetary funds surpluses have been appropriated by thegovernment at

the expense of farmers and other operators in the coffee subsector. "Io2

The main beneficiary has been the government through OCIBU. The govern-
ment's total control of the tertiary processes in regard to arabica through full
ownership, control and operations has bred operational inefficiencies, a
skewed payment system to the detriment of the producer and has indirectly
contributed to the reduced levels of production.

The Role of the State

Burundi's agricultural sector is state led. Successive governments considered
the coffee subsector to be ~trategic."~ The reference to strategy is not limited
to the crop's important role in financing Burundi's imports, but also to the
fact that receipts from the crop, whose arabica variant from the country has
long been considered by coffee auction houses abroad as one of the best,
constitute a 'cash cow' uninhibited by external scrutiny. This is as opposed
to official development assistance, for which the country disproportionately
depended for development projects until the outbreak of the current episode
of conflict in 1993.
UPRONA, the sole political party embodied the executive, legislature and
judiciary, all rolled into one. The ruling elite used the party to mobilise and
indoctrinate, with an overwhelming presence around the country. UPRONA
became the government's local agent where coffee production was con-
cerned, organising and mobilising peasants during the coffee production
cycle. According to a Burundian who vividly remembers the period, UPRONA
infiltrated and influenced local administration and spearheaded government
monitoring activities of the subsector, ensuring that projected government
budgetary outlays for the proceeding financial year, from projected coffee
exports foreign exchange receipts, were met.lo4 In addition, planning of infra-
structure outlays to the producing areas was done principally because of
extraction of the crop rather than for the welfare of the local inhabitants.lo5
The relationship between the government and production in the rural
areas was at best tenuous during the post-independence period before the