Agric stakeholders urged to embrace value addition

New approaches to improve farming productivity even in the midst of climate change that leads to crop and livestock failure are key areas that should be focused on to ensure agriculture transformation.The call was made Monday by Christine Murebwayire, the Chairperson of the Chamber of Rwanda Farmers at Private Sector Federation’s Agriculture (PSF), during a discussion on “Agriculture Transformation in Rwanda From Vision to Results.”“Quality seeds should be availed to farmers on time and distributed according to the suitability for each region because not all the soils in the country have the same features. Fertilisers should also be diversified so that each particular type of soil gets fertiliser application that responds to its nutrient needs,” she said. Murebwayire added that to confront the persistent climate change effects on agriculture, irrigation equipment should be integrated in Ubudehe social stratification categories, where the vulnerable would be paying less than the well-off through government subsidies.Climate change should not manipulate us, we should rather control it, she said.For the transformation of agricultural and livestock produce, Murebwayire noted that there was need for small processing units in the countryside because they would offer jobs to the youth and enable farmers to get more income.Attaher Maiga, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative to Rwanda, said it was an ideal time to exchange information that could hopefully inform government’s strategic medium term poverty reduction strategy, and new agriculture policy.The discussion was hosted by the EU Delegation in Rwanda, and it convened private and non-governmental experts, agri-business players and academics to examine current issues and trends in farming in all its facets.Underscoring the pivot role of agriculture, Maiga said the dramatic decrease in poverty from 80 percent in 1994 to less than 40 per cent in 2014 was largely attributed to successful transformation of agriculture.Agriculture contributed about 60 percent of the total poverty reduction as per the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda 2015.A holistic approachMaiga said attention should be paid to agriculture applied research and technology which would enable farmers to acquire quality seeds in time, promote rapid urbanisation and related food security interventions and strategies for smart use of weather-related information. The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry for Agriculture and Animal Resources, Jean Claude Kayisinga, said the experience and the expertise of the experts in agriculture will contribute to enrichment of the new agriculture policy, pointing out that “climate change has become an issue of concern all over the world and measures should be taken to combat its effects on agriculture and livestock.The EU Ambassador to Rwanda, Michael Ryan, said nutrition – whatever happens in agriculture – has implication on a lot of people because about 80 per cent of the population derive their income from agriculture.He noted that nutrition was one of the aspects that needed to be taken into account.In 2016, the EU signed a EUR 200 million (about Rwf175 billion) Sector Budget Support contract with the Government of Rwanda for the implementation of the Strategic Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture in Rwanda Phase III (PSTA III).PSTA III is a five-year programme developed in 2013 with an aim of intensifying and commercialising farming, and targets to achieve an annual agricultural growth of 8.5 percent, annual export growth rate of 28 per cent and 40 per cent of land under modern agriculture by 2017/18.This is expected to contribute toward the country’s middle-income status goal with per capita GDP of $1240 by 2020 from $220 in 2000. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Agric stakeholders urged to embrace value addition