Bruuma launches new agricultural research program amidst cash crop crisis
Adverse climatic conditions have slashed outputs: dramatic fall for coffee and cocoa

[Image: Coffee-Farmer-picking-beans.jpg]
A worker pick coffee cherries in a Bruuman plantation

The Bruuman Ministry of Agriculture has launched the new Agricultural Emergency Reasearch Program to face a major crisis that has hit its national production, in particular some of its cash crops, a precious source of foreign currency for the regime.
 
Cocoa and coffee production has been in decline for the last three years, with this season bringing a dramatic fall of production: estimates forecast an 8% decline for cocoa and a staggering 11% for coffee. The country will likely dip into its stockpiles to avoid a loss of revenue.
 
Tobacco, grapefruit and sugar cane are also expected to be below prior year figures, while orange is stable.
 
The main cause of the issue has been a combination of warmer temperatures and draught that hit the island, but plant diseases and inefficient management have also played a part.
 
In the case of coffee for example , the warm climate favored the spreading of the leaf rust fungus among the weakened plants, but the crisis could have been contained if the substitution with younger specimen had been carried on faster in the later years and if the irrigation system bringing water from the reservoir had been maintained more efficient. According to sources, several mid and high ranking operatives of the Ministry and the state companies have been removed, allegedly also physically. Corruption and inflated bureaucracy plague virtually every aspect of Bruuman life, and are generally tolerated until consequences become dire, at which points usually a mix of real culprits and scapegoats are doomed to a grim fate.
 
The Agricultural Emergency Reasearch Program, headquartered in its own Komrade Zaka Center, will work to breed new draught and disease resistance strains, new pest control methods and new cultivation techniques.
 
The Bruuman Ministry has invited all countries to join and work together for this development.