Since 2019, the FOMI company has been producing organo-mineral fertilizers. Before the introduction of FOMI, farmers used chemical fertilizers such as DAP, MoP and UREA. Although these fertilizers increased agricultural production, they caused soil acidity.
Through environmental protection policy, States have come together to sign conventions to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, because it had been already noticed that these fertilizers have harmful consequences on soil fertility and on human health.
This is how the FOMI company was born in Burundi with new technological innovations for manufacturing organo-mineral fertilizers, it was in 2019.
Since then, FOMI has been manufacturing 3 types of fertilizers namely: FOMI Imbura, FOMI Totahaza and FOMI Bagara. It also manufactures agricultural lime to fight against soil acidity. The government of Burundi has initiated a National Fertilizer Subsidy Program PNSEB, to make it easier for farmers to obtain these organo-mineral fertilizers at an affordable price. These fertilizers are subsidized at 70% per bag.
Since its creation, FOMI has had the mission of manufacturing fertilizers in sufficient quantities and at the right time. Farmers who have already used FOMI fertilizers testify to their ability to boost agricultural production and restore soil fertility. This is how they responded massively to the use of these fertilizers, which caused the demand to increase from year to year.
As demand increases, so does the need for raw materials for manufacturing. It happens that these raw materials are insufficient or arrive late due to the lack of foreign currency for imports. This constitutes a major challenge facing the FOMI company in manufacturing fertilizers in the quantities requested and at the right time.
However, the government of Burundi does not sit back, it does everything to provide the foreign currency for imports of raw materials to the FOMI company, and as soon as the fertilizers are manufactured, they are directly transported to the stocks located in former provinces of the country, to make them available to farmers. Until april 17, 2026, the FOMI factory is at work, and trucks are ready to transport fertilizers in different areas of the country where there are stores. It happens that fertilizers are not sufficient for reasons talked about above. Unfortunately, we have already noticed that there are some people acting in bad faith who defraud these fertilizers through speculation, by selling them at high prices to farmers who had the right to have them at an affordable price through the PNSEB program.
This despicable behavior adds drama to drama. The President of the Republic Evariste NDAYISHIMIYE launched an appeal to the administrative and security authorities to eradicate this behavior which slows down the development of the country. According to him, every citizen is called upon to point the finger at anyone promoting the poor distribution of fertilizers among farmers.
Journalists are also called upon to carry out investigations and provide information concerning the distribution of the fertilizers from different localities of the country .
As far as the FOMI company is conerned, it is working to continue to produce organo-mineral fertilizers, fertilizers highly appreciated here in Burundi and elsewhere
