PADANE

Projet d’ Appui au Développement Agricole pour la Nutrition et l’Entrepreneuriat (PADANE) is a multi-year initiative designed to improve food and nutrition security, drive inclusive agri-business development, stimulate entrepreneurship for youth and build long-term resilience among Burundi’s rural populations. SNV is financed by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Burundi; under the framework of its Multi-Annual Country Strategic Plan 2019–2022.

Burundi’s diverse agroecological zones offer significant agricultural potential from nutritious horticultural crops for domestic markets, such as fruits and vegetables, milk and eggs, to high-value commercial and niche crops like sorghum, sunflower, and patchouli. However, this potential remains largely untapped due to systemic challenges:

• Soil degradation and land scarcity are driven by erosion and unsustainable practices.

• Limited access to markets, infrastructure, and quality inputs.

• Widespread food insecurity and undernutrition

• Agricultural sector is dominated by low-yield subsistence farming

At the same time, rapid urbanisation and a growing population are generating new demand for safe, nutritious, locally produced food - creating a critical opportunity for change.

Project objective

PADANE is committed to improving the lives of Burundi’s agricultural communities by:

• Increasing household incomes

• Creating sustainable jobs for youth and women

• Enhancing food and nutrition security

• Strengthening resilience to climate change

Our approach

PADANE builds on the successes of previous projects such as SCAD and PAPAB, expanding and deepening the PIP (Plan Intégré du Paysan) approach introduced to over 153,000 smallholder farmers.

This integrated model strengthens household-level planning and sustainable agricultural practices, while PADANE connects it to broader market, financial, and institutional systems.

Our strategy is anchored in five core pillars:

• Inclusive Value Chains: Strengthening market-oriented production in selected value chains - white sorghum, sunflower, patchouli, dairy, poultry (chicken and eggs), amaranth, passion fruit, and tree tomatoes.

• Food and Nutrition Security: Promoting balanced diets, kitchen gardens, and local food processing, with a strong emphasis on women and children.

• Youth and Women Employment: Unlocking agri-entrepreneurship and job creation opportunities, especially for young people and women.

• Access to Finance: Enabling connections between agripreneurs and financial institutions for loan opportunities.

• Innovation Fund: Supporting farmers in accessing funding by promoting innovative ideas that help scale their businesses.

Cross-cutting themes:

• Gender Equality and Social Inclusion: Improving women's leadership and positive masculinity to promote their participation in value chains, embedded across all project activities, ensuring women’s active participation and decision-making power and advocacy to change cultural and institutional challenges.

• Hygiene and Sanitation: Introduced in 2022, this stream strengthens nutrition gains through improved hygiene practices in five out of the seven project provinces.

• Advocacy: A dedicated component to foster continuous learning, knowledge sharing, and dialogue with local and national stakeholders.

Since 2021, the PADANE project has been implemented through a dynamic consortium of 11 national and international NGOs, private sector actors, and research institutions coordinated by SNV Burundi. The project operates in seven provinces across the country, serving as a platform for inclusive rural development and transformative change in the agriculture sector.