Conservation agriculture, construction of more terraces on hilly farms, as well as agroforestry, are among the potential solutions to soil erosion facing food security in the country, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ildephonse Musafiri, has said.

Musafiri made the observation on October 10, while appearing before the Lower House’s plenary sitting to respond to queries regarding how soil erosion and inadequate utilisation of terraced land were negatively affecting crop yields countrywide.

Soil erosion removes the upper fertile part of soils that contain nutrients needed for crop growth.

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On the issue of sandy and weak soils found in some hilly districts — such as Ngororero, Rutsiro, and Rusizi — where it was observed that terraces are not suitable as they are shortly destroyed, Musafiri said that agroforestry and anti-erosive grass are among the considered solutions.

Others, he said, include conservation agriculture, indicating that this is an initiative they started in 2022 as a trial to farm without tilling the land.

Conservation agriculture is a farming system that promotes minimum soil disturbance (that is no tillage), maintenance of a permanent soil cover, and diversification of plant species, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

It enhances biodiversity and natural biological processes above and below the ground surface, which contribute to increased water and nutrient use efficiency, and to improved and sustained crop production, FAO explains.

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"We realised that this farming technique helps to control erosion because land is not tilled, rather, you remove herbs and dig holes, put a seed and fertiliser, then mulch the soil. Even when it rains, the land remains relatively firm,” Musafiri told lawmakers, pointing out that is being tried across the country, including districts such as Ngororero, Rusizi, and Rutsiro where there are weak soils.

"This year, we have at least 413 demo plots (for conservation agriculture) in 413 sectors, in partnership with farmer promoters, and we hope we will have a demo plot in every sector of the country (416 sectors),” he said, pointing out that the technique gives higher yield than tillage-based farming.

Another aspect, Musafiri said, is sensitising farmers to use adequate organic fertiliser to improve sandy soil texture and its nutrient-holding characteristics.

Increasing area covered by terraces, sustaining gains made

Musafiri indicated the area with potential for radical terracing is estimated at 265,000 hectares in Rwanda, and they planned to cover 142,000 hectares by 2024 under the National Strategy for Transformation, "but as of June this year (2023), we have constructed radical terraces on 138,000 hectares.”

He said a five-year project called Commercialisation and De-Risking for Agricultural Transformation project (CDAT) plans to construct about 17,000 terraces. It was launched in 2022.

MP Theogene Munyangeyo said special attention should be put on addressing soil erosion in the hilly terraced land along Kivu Belt which covers five districts – namely Rubavu, Rutsiro, Karongi, Nyamasheke, and Rusizi, which are prone to landslide.

According to Musafiri, heavy rains undo gains achieved in erosion control such as by destroying ditches, especially because of the nature or landscape of an area in question, citing Rubavu.

He promised more effort in community mobilisation for maintenance of existing ditches and digging others in order to help mitigate the effect of storm waters, and to step up anti-erosive endeavours.

ALSO READ: Rwanda loses over Rwf800bn annually due to soil erosion –new report

According to a State of Soil Erosion Control in Rwanda May 2022 report, more than 745,000 hectares of agricultural land in Rwanda are potentially eroded every year. The report was produced by the Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with support from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Using the reference year of 2021, farming season A, the report revealed that over three million tonnes of crop produce are estimated to be lost seasonally due to severe erosion, including 22,000 tonnes of maize and 15,000 tonnes of beans.