Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. The agriculture sector of the country continues to be the leading sector making 33% of GDP, employing about 80 % of the working population.

The country’s agriculture is characterized by low productivity and low economic value. More than 95 % of Rwandan households are practicing traditional subsistence farming on narrow plots of land which have been exploited through continuous cultivation.

Due to the country’s high population density, land remains scarce while labour is a relatively abundant resource. The country has a topography which is mostly made up of rugged terrain with hills and valleys.

Consequently, farm production is highly restrained by lower-than-average farm sizes (inadequate to support a household) coupled with deteriorating soil fertility, which poses severe challenges to increasing crop production.

On the other hand the country receives high amount of rain during the summer season and rain-fall is bimodal in most parts of the country.

Rwanda also has a considerable potential for irrigation, and due to the existence of cool tropical climate, has a distinct advantage of rain conditions permitting cultivation of wider variety of crops.

The GoR is also showing commitment to develop this sector through proper policies, strategies and programs hastening agricultural transformation through technology adoption.

The Agriculture mechanization situation in Rwanda

One of the major factors that hinder the development of the agriculture sector of Rwanda is the use of traditional farm implements and tools by the peasants to operate on their land. It is the use of improved machines, equipment, or other devices operated by different power sources, which would improve agricultural productivity, efficiency, quality of produce, and reduce cost of production in the agricultural production system.

Thus, given the overwhelming dominance of subsistent agriculture in Rwanda, a significant rise in crop and livestock production and productivity must come from developing or adopting new technologies suitable to the individual peasant farming household.

Agricultural Mechanization is a system which embraces the use of improved hand tools, implements and powered machines for agricultural land development, crop and livestock production, proper harvesting, storage, and on-farm processing of agricultural products.

The Rwanda Mechanization programme was started in 2009 as an internally funded project under MINAGRI. To support this, an Agriculture Mechanization Strategy document was formulated with a goal of attaining 25 % farm operations to be mechanized by 2017.

MINAGRI also purchased different farm machinery for the Mechanization Unit. This unit currently operates in RAB under Land Husbandry, Irrigation & Mechanization (LIM) department.

The initial idea of the mechanization program was to promote modern agricultural practices through provision of tractor hiring and selling systems and related extension services.

Gradually, the private sector was expected to take significant shares of different services.

In mid-2011, MINAGRI started establishing Village Mechanization Service Centers (VMSC) as a mechanization extension approach to accelerate mechanization process, help the farmers in accessing farm power facilities, and put more land under mechanized schemes.

Since their establishment, different farm machinery hiring and selling services as well as other extension services have been given through these VMSCs.

Each VMSC was staffed with a manager, tractor operators and watchman for security, while a mechanical technician was later added to the team to reduce the breakdown of farm machinery.

A total of 16 VMSCs were established to promote mechanization options for rural farmers. The establishment of tractor hiring services through VMSCs was expected to make farmers have improved access to tractors and implements for various farm operations.

However, due to limited availability of farm machineries, spare parts, lack of other support and service providers, and other related problems, relatively few farmers have acquired access to these services.

Thus farm operations, including land preparation and postharvest operations are still predominantly done manually.

As a medium term goal of mechanisation for Rwanda, the target was that 50% of all farmers use mechanized inputs in different areas by 2020.

Achievements so far do not exceed 21%, showing that there is a long way to go to improve labour productivity, land productivity, increase cultivable area, attain operational timeliness, and reduce post-harvest losses and drudgery, which are the direct benefits of well mechanised agriculture.

It is hence important to give due consideration for the country’s overall flow of mechanization process and plan properly for years to come.

Private sector Interventions

The mechanization Unit is implementing activities among which is promoting access to farm machinery and use of agriculture mechanization and promoting entrepreneurial & private investments in mechanization

Also the unit is developing support services for mechanization through strengthening capacity building for both public and private sectors plus developing and implementing the mechanization strategy and policy to promote Financing of mechanization through linking financial institutions with farmers.

Mechanization achievements

As for ensuring access to modern farm machinery for land preparation, over 30,000 – 35,000Ha across the country (by public and private) are mechanized.

With importation of different farm machineries including 111 tractors and attachments, 252 power tillers and attachments, rice transplanters and combine harvesters, the level of mechanization in Rwanda increased from less than 3% in 2009 to the current 21%.

More than a half of the machinery have been either sold or transferred to the private individuals in promotion of private sector involvement in mechanization.

With the establishment of Mechanization Centre of Excellence, challenges related to standardization, testing and certification will be solved among others.

With the establishment of private tractor hiring companies in the Eastern Province, RAB still provides tractor hire services in Southern, Northern, Kigali city and some parts of Bugesera district that are not currently covered by private partners.

Whereas the private partners support in land preparation activities, all the other activities including; mechanization promotion/sensitization, capacity building, M&E, repair of farm machinery, etc. are entirely still provided by RAB while strengthening private sector to ensure a smooth transfer.

Some activities have been also started in promoting postharvest machinery. Machinery from local manufactures are used during demonstrations and mechanization day.

Challenges

The low purchasing power of most small-scale farmers, and high interest rate on existing credit facilities are hindering the private sector involvement in agricultural mechanization.

Farmers do not purchase machinery mainly due to lack of finance. Commercial banks are generally not interested in lending to farmers, and their interest rates are far too high for farmers to use loans effectively. Farmers lack collaterals, and there are few rural banks interested in financing mechanisation.

Another challenge is the fact that awareness and education of famers on agricultural mechanization is still low.

Besides, mechanization in Rwanda faces a set of unique challenges due to the hilly terrain, the high population density and the subsequent small plot sizes. These problems are further aggravated by land fragmentation in to small individual plots where it is difficult to use farm machinery efficiently and economically.

Technical challenges

There is lack of approved agricultural machinery standards and specifications suiting local conditions. There is low number of qualified local manufacturers, technicians and researchers in agricultural mechanization plus the lack of suitable agricultural machinery for hilly topography, marshlands and other soil types

There are low equipped workshops and spare parts are not easily available due to lack of proper maintenance and repair facility, maintenance scheduling and spare parts delivery.

Notwithstanding the low equipment, there is also low management skills of cooperatives: there is still limited training and capacity building for farmers, cooperative leaders, private sector actors and involved stakeholders in mechanization, on farm machinery management, yet such skills are essential for a private sector-driven mechanization.

Way forward

There is need for accelerating the transfer of agricultural machinery to private sector and farmers, through identification of private owners (private investors and farmer cooperatives.

Creation of awareness and sensitisation meetings through transferring and selling or hiring system of farm machineries to private investors or farmer cooperatives through subsidy and establishing society between investors and farmer cooperatives with respectively shares of 60% against 40% will help.

Extending the capacity building to different users, by carrying out short training of Private investors and local manufacturers on machinery use and studytours.

There is also need for sensitisation meetings of local authorities (District, sectors, cells and villages leaders) for increased land use consolidation and use of machineries and training of farmer cooperatives and farmers on agricultural mechanization through short sessions and study tours.

Introducing suitable agricultural machinery for different terrain, different crops and scale of operations, through the promoting of mechanization use in farm produce transportation will improve rural livelihoods, belling animal feeds, brick laying, water pumping, etc.

Another recommendation would be promotion of animal traction use for irrigation and crop treatment.

Last but not least is promoting post-harvest handling and processing machinery accross various commodity value chains, through identifying existing and suitable post-harvest machines (survey)and producing suitable prototypes machines.

Establishing standards and specifications of post-harvest and agro-processing machines as well as promoting mechanization in agro-processing will help to improve rural livelihoods and reduce post-harvest losses. A mechanization policy and strategic framework for a private sector driven mechanization sub-sector are being developed in collaboration with FAO and IFC.

SERVICE PROVIDERS IN MECHANIZATION