There is hope that the $120.5 million irrigation project Kirehe district, which has stalled for years could come to life. The optimism was assured during the inauguration of another part of the project in Mahama sector, on Tuesday March 1. The project became the subject of public attention in October last year when the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) carried out tours intended to assess the state of major projects that the Auditor General’s report said had either stalled or poorly executed. Among the projects toured include the $120 million Export Targeted Modern Irrigated Agricultural Project (ETI). Rwanda signed a $120.5 million loan from the Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank) of India in October 2013 to implement this project to irrigate 7,000 hectares in Mahama, Mpanga and Nyamugali Sectors in Kirehe District. The project which had to establish a food processing plant and 12 MW solar power plant in this area of the Eastern Province of the country was supposed to be complete by 2017 which didn’t happen due to different difficulties in the implementation. Speaking during the launch of another phase of the project to cost $27.8 million on over 2,600 hectares in Mahama sector, Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources told the media that “works on the previous phase in Mahama and Mpanga sectors could be complete by the end of this year”. This is the project that we are implementing under the support of India, he disclosed. “The second phase could take 18 months to be complete,” he explained. The Mahama second phase is expected to benefit 4,000 farmers. The water to irrigate 2,669 hectares in Mahama sector is set to be extracted from Akagera River. Emmanuel Gasana, the Governor of the Eastern Province, said encouraged farmers to group themselves in cooperatives in order to better benefit from the project. “There are over 35,000 households in the area that could benefit from such irrigation projects in general,” he said. Framers upbeat Martin Habimana, a farmer from the Mahama sector said; “ I had grown maize on one hectare this concluded Agricultural Season A expecting to harvest seven tones but I could only harvest two tones following prolonged drought that affected our crops. We hope this project will save us from such woes,” said Stalled centre of Excellence in farm mechanisation to be complete soon The $120.5 million project was also meant to establish a $12.2 million Centre of Excellence in farm mechanisation, in Rubilizi, Kigali so that mechanisation is used on irrigated pieces of land. However, according to the Auditor General’s report, works were abandoned as of October 2020. State Minister Ngabitsinze told The New Times that the centre could be complete within between three and four months as works have resumed. “The centre will produce tilling machines and repair them,” he said. Oscar Kerketta the High Commissioner of India to Rwanda disclosed that there is another $100 million support from the Indian credit system that will soon boost irrigation in Bugesera district on the Rweru-Mugesera wetland complex. Some $220 million out of a $547 million credit assistance system has been earmarked for irrigation. Rwanda targets to irrigate 102,284 hectares by 2024. The total area currently under irrigation is 67,100 hectares composed of 37,273 hectares of marshlands, 9,439 hectares of hillside and 20,388 hectares of small scale irrigation technology.
