In Burundi, Gérardine Irakoze combines rice and fish in Bujumbura
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Iwacu
Aged 26, Gérardine Irakoze chairs the Buramata Agro-Pastoral and Commercial Cooperative (Capcobu) in Gihanga, Bujumbura province. There she is developing rice-fish farming, which combines fish farming with rice cultivation, and is creating jobs for other young people, according to Iwacu.
Gérardine Irakoze, 26, chairs the Buramata Agro-Pastoral and Commercial Cooperative (Capcobu), on Buramata hill in the Gihanga area of Bujumbura province. She combines fish farming with rice cultivation, a technique known as rice-fish farming. Residents say they learned from her that fish naturally produce fertilisers that enrich the paddy fields, Iwacu reports.
A graduate in management computing, she experienced unemployment after her studies before setting up the cooperative with other young people. There were 45 of them at the start, on a paddy field of four ares. The Youth Economic Empowerment and Employment Programme (PAEEJ) granted her a loan of eight million Burundian francs, which allowed them to expand the cultivated area to 25 ares. According to the cooperative, the loan has been repaid.
The cooperative also raises 250 hens in chicken coops built above the ponds. Their manure serves as fertiliser for the crops, while the fish keep the paddy fields fertile.
