Officials from the Special Grant Fund are working with stakeholders to revise the fee paid to people whose property is damaged by wild animals around the national parks and lakes.

This was revealed during a meeting to discuss the possible ways the fees can be increased earlier this week.

Sector agronomists who play a role in registering the damaged properties say the current compensation fee paid to affected farmers needs revisiting.

They said the amount paid to people who lose property due to wild animals in the parks is still low compared to the market realities.

"There are still problems, people are not satisfied with the compensation fee, others complain of the process they go through to have their documents approved and the time taken to get the compensation,” said Jean Pierre Hakizimana, an agronomist from Musanze District.

The actual period to get paid, according to officials, should be less than 45 days since the damage is registered but it was noted that, in some cases, it goes beyond three months.

"Another challenge is that when farmers fear about potential hunger, they replant the crops without waiting for compensation and when the time for valuation comes, there is no evidence of losses,” he added.

John Rugundana, the pyrethrum field coordinator at Horizon Sopyrwa, a pyrethrum growing and processing company, said farmers are not paid compensation commensurate with the damaged crops.

"Farmers are paid Rwf20,000 on 200 square metres of land on which they would otherwise harvest pyrethrum worth over Rwf350,000. This means that the fund undervalues but I hope these discussions will bear fruit,” said Rugundana.

Dr Joseph Nzabonikuza, Special Grant Fund chairperson, said the issue of valuation has been a concern for a long time and new rates will reflect current market prices as provided by the National Institute of Statistics (NIS).

"We are aware of the complaints of farmers over low payment when their properties are damaged by animals, that is why we have proposed the new prices basing on the figures from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda. We are trying to solve the problem,” said Nzabonikuza.

The proposed figure was increased up to 16 per cent in general.

But farmers and agronomists called for more scrutiny to ensure that farmers don’t lose out whenever animals destroy their properties.

Nzabonikuza said the alleged delays in payment are due to the fact that gathering information and necessary documents of the damaged properties takes longer.

Efforts are being undertaken to ensure that all parks have strong fences so that animals have no way to exit and go destroy farmers’ properties, he said.

Established in 2012, the Special Special Grant Fund has the responsibility to pay compensation fees to the communities around the parks and lakes whose properties are destroyed by wild animals or individuals who are wounded or whose relatives have been killed by the same animals.

At least Rwf1 billion was spent on compensation over the last two years, according to the officials. Over 2500 farmers have been compensated since the fund’s inception.

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