Legume Breeders Network to be launched

The State Minister in charge of Agriculture (MINAGRI), Agnes Kalibata, will tomorrow launch a Legume Breeders Network at the Serena Hotel, Kigali. Legumes like beans, peas and related crops provide millions of Africans at risk of hunger with an essential source of protein yet the challenges is to increasing production for home use and for sale are high. Crop breeders from 12 countries will launch the network aimed at further boosting the availability of legumes in order to combat malnutrition and hunger, and to raise the income of Africa’s small-scale farmers, most of whom are women. This launch will have an impact on millions of Rwanda’s farmers whose land is small and yet the demand for foods like beans in the country is high. Organising the event in partnership with MINAGRI is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. The partnership that advocates for policies which support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural soil also develops practical solutions to significantly boost farm produce and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA’s Board is chaired by Kofi A. Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations while its President is Dr. A. Namanga Ngongi, former Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program. With initial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AGRA maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Accra, Ghana. At the launch of the AGRA in South Africa, 2007 Annan said, “I accept this honour alongside all of you who support our African campaign because, for me, there is nothing more important. I am humbled, and yet excited.” In Africa, this means enabling small-scale farmers to grow and sell Africa’s food whose goal is to increase the productivity, food security, incomes and livelihoods of small-scale farmers. The only practical solution to address the major cause of our continental poverty (agricultural sector) has languished and is now poised to be so much more productive and dynamic. Rwanda faces many challenges and through this Alliance, there is reason for hope. Enoch Munyaneza, a small-scale farmer in Kicukiro district looks to this as a revolution aimed at improved agricultural production, the basis of a larger effort to take Africa confidently into a new era of sustainable development. “Apart from accelerating the development of African agricultural expertise, this will also improve the lives of farmers and deliver greater opportunity, enterprise and prosperity,” Munyaneza observed. Ends