Rwanda will, tomorrow, celebrate the World Food Day, in Musanze district with a focus on good farm prices and increased productivity.

World Food Day highlights the vital role that food assistance plays during humanitarian crises, supporting recovery in the immediate aftermath of disasters, and building the resilience that is necessary to ensure food security.

On the national level, the Day’s theme is ‘Good farm prices as an incentive to increased productivity’ while the theme for the international level is ‘Food Prices from crisis to stability.’

The celebrations are organised by the World Food Programme (WFP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Parmanent Secretary in the ministry of agriculture, Ernest Ruzindaza,  observed the significance of the Day, saying that it will help the nationals to reflect on how to solve the problems of food insecurity.

"The Day helps countries to reflect back  and get a common solution on fighting food insecurity,”  Ruzindana said. "We decided to take it to the Northern Province where we shall discuss with farmers how to improve our agricultural skills to avoid food insecurity.”

Musanze is one of the food baskets of the country and the leading producer of Irish potatoes.

"Across the world, we are the bridge between hunger and hope for millions of people,” said WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran.

"WFP is providing life-saving food assistance in the midst of crises like the drought in the Horn of Africa.”

In Rwanda, WFP provides food assistance to Congolese refugees, provides supplementary feeding to malnourished children under five years, pregnant and lactating mothers as well as people living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral treatment.

WFP also provides hot lunches to 350,000 pupils in 300 primary schools.

WFP is buying food commodities (maize and beans) in Rwanda through the Purchase for Progress initiative (P4P) and since 2010 more that 6000 metric tons of combined commodities have been purchased from the small holder farmers.

"Through the P4P initiative over 1,000 farmers have been trained on post harvest techniques, business and marketing skills,” said Abdoulaye Balde, WFP representative and country director.

"WFP also links the farmers to financial institutions and to broader markets through agricultural trade fairs and all these have contributed to improved quality of farm produce, increased incomes of farmers and encourage farmers to produce more,” he said.

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