In Burundi’s hills, red hot pepper leads to a farming revolution
Inside the NAEB Horticulture Packing House in Rwanda. Farmers in Burundi are taking up growing chilli peppers. Picture: Courtesy of Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Rwanda. PHOTO | COURTESY
The mist covered the hills and a soft wind blew gently over the fragmented fields of Rwanyege village.
It would have been a normal morning in this rural part of Burundi’s Ngozi Province in Busiga commune, the day where almost everyone goes to farm, but that day in February 2018, was different. Emmanuel Niyibizi had an outside-the-box idea for Busiga – to grow chilli pepper. He shared it with his parents, but they were lukewarm. Except for having one or two plants in the backyard that would yield a dozen chilli peppers to spice up their food, no one had done it before at scale. The other known use of chilli pepper for the people here was told in legend; that their ancestors used it to ward off evil spirits.
