Today World Food Day is being celebrated all over the world, a day set aside in celebration of human rights in the form of eradicating hunger and poverty among the world’s poor.

This year’s theme, the Right to Food, is in line with fighting for those human rights. In Rwanda,  this right would not be necessary really because of the food security, but for the destructive floods in some areas that have left people without food as their gardens were destroyed.

Otherwise reports are that the agriculture sector has grown by 4.3 percent in the past two years, meaning more food assurance for the population.

It is necessary that it is so, because the demands on Rwanda’s granary is tremendous: thousands of returnees from neighbouring countries, many orphans and other vulnerable groups, and greatest of all, the fast population growth.

Rwandans should work harder to provide for these and for themselves, and should also remember to make maximum use of whatever is available.

For example there is not enough use of homegrown products into quality foods in Rwanda. Even in the most urban environments of Kigali, trees grow carrying with them mangos, passion fruit, avocado and oranges.

There is an actual of abundance of food in the country, but it is not always correctly or efficiently used.

Our own backyards are teeming with fresh fruit and vegetables, which we must exploit to maximum advantage.

On this World Food Day Rwanda must remember that one does not need money to be content. The unemployed man living in the ghetto can pick from his own avocado tree and enjoy the freshest fruits God gave us.

Although hardships are amongst many of us, there is never an excuse or reason to not do everything within our own power to make our lives better, and that begins with food. Let us embrace what makes Rwanda an Eden in Africa.

Many foreigners come here and see the hills and green thick wet land and feel healthier. In fancy hotels tourists may give top dollars for fresh fruit that makes them feel as though ‘Africa’ means ‘healthy.’ There is nothing different about the food they eat and the avocado that falls on the cement outside the Ministry of Justice.
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