The new Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ildephonse Musafiri, will focus on six key actions meant to ensure increased agricultural output and food security for Rwandans, through de-risking the sector and enhancing its performance.

Musafiri was appointed as Minister of Agriculture, on March 2, replacing Gerardine Mukeshimana – who had headed the Ministry for just over eight years since her appointment on July 24, 2014.

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While still a Minister of State, on February 27, during Umushyikirano - the National Dialogue Council – Musafiri listed six major plans or policy actions the Ministry intended to continuously put emphasis on so as to, among others, ensure food security for Rwandans. Musafiri said that though there was some progress made in agriculture, – with an estimated 81 per cent of Rwandan households being food secure as they at least have two meals a day - Umushyikirano came at a time when consumers were dealing with high commodity prices.

"Currently, prices of foods are high at the market, because of the tough times that the world – including Rwanda – is going through,” he said citing the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war which resulted in the hike of food prices.

Here, below, are the six major things or areas the Ministry intends to continue giving more attention:

1. Irrigation and terracing

Musafiri said that drought was among the issues that the country has grappled with within the last two years, especially in its Eastern Province and Southern Province where agricultural yields were negatively affected.

In order to prevent a situation where events undo the gains made in agriculture, he said that the Ministry has to strengthen measures meant to ensure agriculture resilience to climate change shocks.

"We will increase irrigation, and construction of terraces, because that is what helps to raise yields,” he said.

"Strategies are there; we know that we have a plan to irrigate 500,000 hectares in the country. But, as we have reached 70,000 [hectares of irrigated farmland], we hope that, by the end of this year, we will have added a significant acreage on that.”

He cited the Gabiro Agribusiness Hub Project, located in Eastern Province, which will add 5,600 hectares of irrigated agricultural area, and the Commercialisation and De-Risking for Agricultural Transformation Project (CDAT) that will bring about 17,000 hectares under irrigation within five years, as well as 10,000 of radical terraces to help control erosion.

2. Increase farm productivity

As the Rwandan population continues to increase, yet agricultural land remains the same, there is an urgent need to raise farm productivity so as to meet the rising food needs.

"This implies that we invest efforts in the use of fertilisers and quality seeds, as well as the production of fertiliser locally, which can help to tame the high prices for the imported one,” he said.

The plan is to increase the yield from every hectare of land under agriculture.

According to the 2021-2022 report by the Ministry of Agriculture, productivity of crops such as beans, maize, and soybean, was lagging behind the 2024 targets under the national strategy for transformation (NST1).

The maize production target by 2024, was 2.94 tonnes per hectare, but the current status showed that the quantity for this crop was 1.6 tonnes, or 54 per cent of the envisaged amount.

For beans, production was even lower as it was 0.7 tonnes, or about 32 per cent of the targeted 2.22 tonnes by 2024. Soya bean production was 0.5 tonnes per hectare, or 39 per cent of the envisaged 1.28 tonnes.

3. Better post-harvest handling, market linkages for farmers

Musafiri said that the achieved farm produce should be properly handled to prevent losses.

"Sometimes we get good harvest, but its transportation from the farm to the processing site, bringing factories that add value to it, has low performance,” he said.

Also, there are cases of poor harvest storage facilities, citing recent incidents of maize drying shelters that collapsed, killing and injuring farmers, among others.

Such facilities broke down because of two factors, including being overloaded by much maize yield, and substandard structures, Musafiri admitted.

"That is why we are going to set their [maize storage or drying shelter facilities] standards so that we at least protect the produce and the people,” he said.

Connected to that, Musafiri said, "linking farmers to the market is an area where we have to put efforts so that the farmer gets buyers for their produce, at favourable prices.”

4. Revamping farming, livestock

Musafiri said that there are factories that are being set up, including those for milk processing, but indicated that there are other value chains that must be developed. He cited animal feeding that was still affected by challenges, which he said must be tackled.

Musafiri said that the Ministry is considering other sources of protein for animal feed which can give better yields than maize.

5. Scaling up farmer support

Musafiri said that the Ministry, through the partnership with the Ministry of Local Government, was committed to working closely with farmers and providing them with the necessary support so that they are able to get better yields.

Because of a lack of support from the agriculture sector leaders or agriculture extension services, Musafiri said that some farmers were failing to carry out good farming practices such as crop rotation, and recommended fertiliser use.

"The plan is to be closer to them [farmers] than ever before so that the required food is available,” he said.

6. Credit and insurance facilities

Credit and insurance to farmers are crucial as they help to get the required investment. Yet, for years, the loan allocated to farmers stunted at below 5 per cent, Musafiri said, decrying the fact that financial institutions were not willing to fund farmers yet agriculture is a sector that provides food to the more than 13.2 million Rwandans.

However, Rwanda targets to double lending to agriculture to 10.4 per cent by 2024.

Musafiri said that, through initiatives such as the five-year CDAT project, the Government wants to show that agriculture lending is possible. He said that some farmers are now able to get relatively affordable loans at 8 percent annual interest rate.

Still, with a view to de-risk the agriculture sector, he said that insurance was important as it mitigates farmers’ loss in case of disasters such as epidemics in livestock, and drought.

He underscored that under the national agriculture insurance scheme, the farmer pays 60 per cent of the insurance premiums in question, while the Government covers the remaining 40 percent as a subsidy.

Overall, Musafiri said, the ministry will enhance its monitoring and evaluation system to ensure that investments in agriculture are yielding the intended results.