Rwanda Cattle Livestock Sector In Strong Recovery

The number of cows in Rwanda grew from just 172,000 in the immediate aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi to 1.3 million currently, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources..

Milk production went up from over 7.2 million litres per year in 1994 to 817 million litres in 2019, increasing over 110 times over the last 25 years.

Solange Uwituze, the Deputy Director General of Animal Research and Technology Transfer at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), told The New Times that Rwanda’s cattle are today composed of 43 per cent crossbreeds, 41 per cent local breeds, and 16 per cent pure breeds.

A big proportion of crossbreeds, Uwituze said, were donated to citizens through the government-backed Girinka scheme (One Cow per Poor Family) under which more than 354,700 cows had been distributed to needy Rwandan households by mid-June 2019.

The initiative has significantly boosted nutrition, farm productivity and household incomes.

“There has been a deliberate effort to improve the genetic potential of our national dairy herd through artificial insemination. Today, we inseminate 100,000 cows per year,” Uwituze said.

Shortly before the Genocide, the country had 600,000 cows but most of them were butchered by Genocide perpetrators during the three-month slaughter.

In the end only 172,000 cows were left by July 1994.

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Solar-Powered Milk Coolers Proposed For Rwandese Dairy Farmers

“Sometimes, a farmer milks the cow and will wait for two hours until he will transport the milk to the [milk] collection centre. The milk is hot such as at 35 degrees, [and] the climate is hot. So, the milk is fermenting, and every 20 minutes, the number of germs in the milk doubles, and the quality of milk is deteriorating,” he said as he explains an instance of impact of lack of effective cooling system to the milk.

The remedy to the problem...is very quick cooling, and to do this, you need to have cold system just near the farm, or at the farm itself.

“...we have some new equipment that are actually very low energy consuming, and they can be run easily by solar or normal single-phase electric power...with this equipment, you can cool the milk very, very quickly, just near the cow, so that each farmer will become like a milk hub, and all these milk hubs [farmers] will deliver the cold milk to the milk [collection] centres.”

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Rwanda's ambitious plans to grow its own wheat

Wheat may be the most ambitious of the grain crops for African countries to aim to be self-sufficient in, for many reasons. It is a much more demanding crop than maize, Africa's main grain, which many countries struggle to grow enough of, with yields being in the low single digit tonnes per hectare.

A relative luxury crop, most African countries depend on imports of wheat. South Africa and Zimbabwe  represent some of the few countries in Africa that have had significant wheat-growing sectors, but in both countries cultivated hectares are declining, as is competitiveness against imported wheat.

Given this scenario, Rwanda's plans 'to close the gap between wheat imports and domestic production as soon as possible' may seem to be ill-advised, although the country does have some wheat-production factors on its side. For one thing, it is a highlands country, with a good calendar spread of the temperate climes (cool temperature and heavy rains) needed for wheat production, whereas in South Africa and Zimbabwe wheat can only be successfully grown in a short, dry winter season under heavy, expensive irrigation.

Rwanda's agriculture ministry has a target of over 53,000 hectares being taken up by wheat and to date has managed to oversee over 43,000 hectares.

Published data (FAO and USDA) indicates Rwanda's 2015 wheat area to be around 35,000 hectares, with yields averaging two tonnes/hectare (global average: 4.374 tonne/ha, FAO.)

Unlike in some countries where wheat production is predominantly on large commercial farms, most of Rwanda's production is by small scale farmers.

Amongst a cocktail of measures expected to increase wheat production are increased cultivated hectarage, better choice of cultivated strains, increased use of fetilisers, improved extension services and reduction of post-harvest losses.

But even with all these measures that have seen Rwandan wheat production increase in hectarage and yields, there remain significant challenges to a viable local wheat sector. One of these is low price imports of wheat  allowed by many governments. This helps to keep the price of bread affordable for the politically active urban populations, to the cost of local wheat producers.

Why do governments permit low-price wheat imports? Amongst the answers: Local wheat is often of poorer quality, the supply is inadequate, and transportation costs can be higher than cost of imported varieties.

“But even if duties are imposed, our producers cannot compete with the kind of subsidies that producers in the exporting countries enjoy,” said an official of the Rwanda Agriculture Board. 

Given the experiences of other countries in Africa and elsewhere, Rwanda may find that there are obstacles to wheat self-sufficiency that are so numerous that it may not be a goal worth pursuing, given far more pressing agricultural challenges.

African Agriculture

Flooding losses cause Rwanda sugar company to seek upland cane cultivation

Kabuye Sugar Works, Rwanda's sole sugar procedure, seeks to grow sugar cane at higher elevations because of seasonal flooding problems which cut output by 3000 and 4000 tonnes of sugar annually, worsening periodic shortages of the commodity, most of which is imported.


Kabuye'e annual output is 10,000 tonnes, compared to a demand of 50,000 tonnes.


Meanwhile, a government official has announced that a second sugar plant is being planned.

African Agriculture

Rwanda irrigation project to make maize farming more secure

In 2010, farmers in Rwanda’s Nyagatare District lost over 4,000 hectares of maize due to a serious drought during the rain/cropping season. In an at least sectors of the district, a new government irrigation system will reduce the climate risks of rain-dependent farming.

Irrigation canals are currently being constructed in the Matimba and Musheri sectors of the district, with the scheme expected to be ready for farmers’ use in time for the 2012/2013 farming season.

The first phase will cover 400 hectares, with gradual expansion to the rest of the district. Rwanda’s New Times reports that it is a long term project ‘expected to last for over 20 years.’

An agronomist in the ministry of agriculture said, “Farmers have been carrying out their activities in valleys and swamps during dry seasons…but this new project will even see upland farming during the dry spell.”

African Agriculture

Rwanda aims for rice self-sufficiency by 2016

None of Africa’s major rice-consuming countries is self-sufficient in the cereal. Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, and several others have rice-growing efforts of various levels, but none seems close to significantly reducing imports from Asia. Apart from cultivation and other difficulties that plague these schemes, the locally grown rice varieties have sometimes also faced consumer resistance because of their differences in appearance, taste, ease of cooking and so on, compared to the imported varieties many have become accustomed to.

Rwanda has an ambitious plan to supply all its own rice needs by 2016. As part of the plan, a 1750 hectare wetland in the country’s Nyagatare District has been set aside for rice cultivation.

According to the New Times newspaper, the minister of agriculture said 200 of the wetland had been reclaimed for rice cultivation under the World Bank-funded Muvumba Marshland Rehabilitation Project. 750 more hectares were expected to be ready for the beginning of the rice planting season at the beginning of January 2012.

“Our target is to harvest 22,000 tonnes of rice every year from the marshland, which will significantly reduce the current importation burden,” agriculture minister Agnes Kalibata said. “From our plan to cultivate in 100,000 hectares of land under the RSSP, 50 percent of which will be used for rice production, we are certain that within 7 years we will have enough rice, not only for local consumption, but also for export.”

According to Kalibata, the country consumes approximately 55,000 tonnes of rice every year.

African Agriculture

Interrogating Africa’s traditional communal land tenure systems

by Chido Makunike

In having a relatively small land mass and high population density, Rwanda is unlike most other African countries. This makes its land use and management challenges much more urgent and of a different nature than those of countries that have more ‘spare’ land.

Until the coming of European colonization, land tenure systems in Africa were almost exclusively based on some form of communal ownership and use. Individual title deeds are now the norm in urban areas but in most countries, rural land is still under some form of communal ownership, with traditional community leaders being in charge of allocating land, often even where government has legal title to the land.

Title to rural farmland is common in countries that have significant European ‘settler’ communities, such as Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Land that was grabbed from the Africans was then defined as ‘European land’ on which title deeds were then issued out to the settler beneficiaries. These colonial land grabs have in Zimbabwe been used as the political basis for the controversial recent land ‘re grabs’ from white farmers.

In all countries, rapidly increasing populations, climate and environmental pressures on the land mean that traditional land ownership system are not sustainable in the long term. To give just one example, in most societies traditionally the sons would inherit the father’s land. Large land masses, low populations and high mortality rates were some of the factors that helped make the system work. But today’s conditions mean many more pressures on the land, requiring different solutions.

None of the required new solutions are obvious or easy. Most African societies are still agrarian, but under conditions that mean the land can no longer sufficiently support all the people on it for population, soil fertility, climate and many other reasons. Many people are drifting to towns, but not because of any significant industrialization or other opportunities offered there. The urban areas are seen as offering more, easier opportunities to scrape together a living than do the rural areas. Those who remain on the land may work as hard as they ever did, or harder, but for declining returns.

All these problems are concentrated in a small, population-dense country like Rwanda.

“Get Peasants Off Land for Their Own Survival” is an interesting November 2011 article (http://allafrica.com/stories/201111150602.html) by Edward Ojulu looking at Rwanda’s options to address these issues.

Ojulu says a law passed in 2005 ‘‘gives the government of Rwanda authority to manage and regulate the use of all land in the country.’’

Among the points he makes:

* ‘Land in most parts of Africa has been in the hands of subsistence (peasant) farmers who apply crude tools and methods of cultivation to produce food barely enough for their own domestic consumption. With high population growth rates, peasants have further eroded land productivity by fragmenting the land into tiny plots that can hardly produce enough food for a family of five. ‘

* ‘In the case of Rwanda, one of the most densely populated countries on planet earth, official statistics show that there is one hectare of land for every nine Rwandans. And this is diminishing due to high birth rates, with the country's population is expected to hit 16 million by 2020.

His bold conclusion is that, ‘The time is therefore now to institute bold land reforms to remove a peasant farmer off the land to allow proper and sustainable management by the State, whose role in ensuring food security has now become more critical.’

One might question whether a key direct role for government in ensuring food security is the best solution to the problems he outlines, but he anticipates this, stating, ‘It is suicidal for any government in Africa today to shy away from this role. When people don't have food, they accuse the government of negligence. There are already signs of unrest and political instability cause by food scarcity in the region.’

Ojulu goes even further in arguing for tough measures by the State to take charge of land use and food production.

He writes, ‘The time is now for the state in Africa to take full control of land by expropriating it for commercial food production. This will require not half-hearted measures but a very elaborate agricultural revolution that will see peasants relocate to planned settlements from where they will commute to work in farms and the agro-processing industries that will emerge as a result of commercial products.’

‘With the new law that gives nationals only leasing rights on the land they occupy, this country can indeed put an end to land fragmentation. This is possible because a father of 10 sons who is currently living on a hectare, no longer has the right to sub-divide it into plots and distribute to his sons. He needs the permission of the landlord (the state) to transfer his lease rights,’ says Ojulu.

While the issues he raises are important, none of the answers may be as easy and straightforward as Ojulu suggests. Several countries have tried the mass relocation of peasants to ‘planned settlements’ under various guises, but rarely with successful results. One example that comes to mind is the Ujamaa experiment of the late president, Julius Nyerere, in Tanzania, which caused more problems than it solved.

In colonial Rhodesia, Africans were moved from their ancestral lands to ‘tribal trust lands’ where they were to be provided centralized services, while the grabbed land from which they had been moved was titled to white settlers who then became farmers. This was obviously a strong reason for African disgruntlement, eventually leading up to a long, bitter independence war, and accounting for the recent controversial but also popular Zimbabwean land ‘re-grabs’ of recent years.

Ethiopia in particular has been in the news a lot recently for allegedly ‘grabbing’ a lot of communally held land from peasant farmers to cede to foreign agro-investors. But this type of modern day land ‘grabbing’ by African governments under pressure to provide food and economic solutions is hardly unique to Ethiopia. Whether the results of this grabbing will be the net positives Ojulu seems to assume will only become clear in coming years.

In Zimbabwe, the thriving commercial farms that were built up on colonially grabbed African land led to many other problems which did not become fully obvious for many decades. So even if Ojulu’s idea of expropriating low-productivity land to make higher productivity use were basically sound, how this difficult process is carried out makes a big difference to the political acceptability, and the ultimate success of the change.

While Ojulu is right to say that in times of food scarcity people expect the government to make aggressive moves to avert hunger, this is not necessarily at all the same as advancing a direct role for the State in farming. There are almost no examples in Africa of government successfully being directly involved in agricultural production to any significant extent. Almost everywhere there has been farming success, it has been by government providing the conditions for small or large scale private farmers to then thrive.

In today’s developed countries, the migration from rural peasantry to urban wage labor was an ‘organic’ outcome of the process of industrialization. That process has not significantly happened in Africa. In Africa the migration is from poor and declining prospects in the rural areas to urban prospects that are not much better. Even if Ethiopia or Rhodesia-style mass relocations of rural communities to make way for agri-business improved food production, there is no reason to think that the millions of people displaced would find productive accommodation in the towns or downstream agro-industries.

Agro-industries imply mechanization, so any jobs produced would not match the numbers of people displaced from rural areas. In any case, rural peasants would hardly be the choice of employee for any industry. And even in the case of new mega farm holdings, their workers will be measured in thousands of people, not hundreds of thousands or millions. A significant, difficult question that all African countries face, therefore, is if you expropriate land from rural peasants for reasons similar to those given by Ojulu, what do all the displaced people do?

Whatever one thinks of Ojulu’s conclusions, he does do a good job of presenting some of the pressing issues to do with land tenure systems needing revision all over Africa.

African Agriculture

Insect experts to help diagnose disease affecting Rwandan coffee

The expertise of entomologists at the University of California, Riverside has a worldwide impact..

Now Thomas Miller, a professor of entomology and a Jefferson Science Fellow, will travel to Rwanda, Africa, to help solve a mystery surrounding the country's specialty coffee sector – a sector that accounts for 26 percent of the country's agricultural exports.

A defect called "potato taste" – thought to be caused in part by the antestia bug – is threatening to deter international buyers from purchasing Rwandan coffee.

"When stink bugs feed on plants, they can affect the taste of the fruit from the plants," Miller explained. "For example, the brown marmorated stink bug feeding on tomatoes changes their taste. Certain tea plants, when fed upon by leafhoppers, produce leaves with improved taste. Much of the underlying reasons for these are not known."

Determining the specific cause of potato taste is a major challenge Miller and Christian Cilas, a French scientist, face after they travel to Rwanda on Jan. 7. Currently, there is no definitive link between potato taste and antestia bug, only hypotheses.

Miller will stay in Rwanda for two weeks – one week will be comprised of meetings, including three national workshops for stakeholders across private sectors, research, academia, and government; the other week will be used in field visits. He expects to get a better understanding of potato taste and its causes, gather samples for analysis in the United States, and begin collaborations with Rwandan scientists.

"We will devise a multi-pronged strategy for ridding Rwanda's specialty coffee of potato taste defect," Miller said. "And we will also assist Rwanda in reaching out and making contacts with people grappling with similar problems globally."

Starting Jan. 9, Miller and Cilas will join a group of researchers from the National University of Rwanda to solve the mystery surrounding potato taste.

The collective effort to eliminate potato taste in Rwandan specialty coffee is being organized under the auspices of the Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI), an international non-profit. Through the Learning and Innovation for Network for Knowledge and Solutions (LINK) Program, GKI helps scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs worldwide construct purpose-driven networks to tackle challenges like the one Miller and Cilas will confront in Rwanda. A full analysis of LINK Rwanda will enable the international team to maximize efforts and leverage shared resources.

University of California Riverside

Rwanda plans agriculture development bank

by Bosco Hitimana

Rwanda plans to set up an agricultural development bank with the aim of increasing funding to the sector, which employs more than 80% of the country's working population and supports more than 30% of the economy, the new prime minister told Parliament recently.

Mr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi said by creating an agricultural development Bank, Rwanda would have a second development bank after the current development bank which finances high-risk projects in sectors that have high-value and meaning to the development of the country.

Statistics from the National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) indicate that between January and September this year, the agricultural sector had received Rf9.90 billion($16.7m) loans against Rf3.43 billion($5.8m) last year.

This is only a small portion of new authorised loans in the same period, totaling Rf239.38b (US$403.7m).

However, under funding of the sector is explained by many things. Borrowers consider the agricultural sector as a high risk area because it lacks insurance and it is less innovative. Most of Rwanda's agriculture s subsistence with minimal commercial undertakings.

The sector is also less insured against the adverse weather conditions and other natural calamities.

This scares banks from lending to the sector. Though dominated by small-scale farming, the sector has realised a rise in use of fertilisers, irrigation and machenisation though at a low scale’

However, with cash crops such as coffee and tea, there is some improvements in terms of access to finance although the exporters still want the government as well commercial banks to increase funding to the sector.

For instance, a sector like coffee is funded through the Rwanda Development Bank and other commercial Banks like Bank of Kigali.

However, the players in the sector say the cost of financing is still high somewhere 16% and 17% and it should go down to allow them access more funds and export more.

At times, however, banks blame the borrowers of unviable projects, which could lead to losses.

Analysts believe that by creating an agricultural development bank, Rwanda will have solved one of the most fundamental challenges to her development.

Busiweek

Rwanda government to construct coffee roasting plant

by Gertrude Majyambere

The Rwandan National Agriculture Export Development Board (NAEB) is set to establish a coffee roasting plant as part of the government’s strategy to raise farmers’ earnings and boost coffee exports by adding value to the crop.

The Rwf700million (1 US$D = 622.9243 RWF) plant will be put up through a Public Private Partnership (PPP), with Ocir-Café holding 49 per cent stake in the project while private operator, Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, will hold 51 per cent shares.

Alex Kanyankole, the Director General of NAEB said they are yet to acquire a construction permit. Real Contractors has been hired to carryout the construction, which will last between six and eight months.

“This plant is aimed at the premium end of the market and will complement other products in the coffee export chain but it will be priced higher than our green coffee beans,” Kanyankole said.

Rwanda mainly exports traditional coffee beans, which currently attracts US$6 per kilo on the international market, US$14 less than the price of roasted coffee.

The plant will have the capacity to roast 3,000 metric tones annually. Rwanda targets the Middle East, regional markets and the US for her roasted coffee exports.

This year, government targets US $60m from coffee exports, up from US $47m last year.

Currently, coffee roasters include Bourbon, Ocir Café and Nkubiri Enterprise that roast between 10 and 20 metric tonnes per year.

The New Times

Animal-human conflict rages in eastern Rwanda

by Heather Murdock

Nearly 17 years after civil war and genocide devastated the country, Rwanda is mostly peaceful, and the economy is growing fast. But in the eastern countryside, conflict still rages. Wild animals attack people, while gangs of poachers roam the forest endangering the wildlife and the rangers trying to protect them.

Antoine, says he has lived in the village of Humere for three years. He is trying to grow sorghum beans and maize. For three years, he says, animals from the nearby Akagera National Park have raided his crops. He  says he cannot feed his family, and he is thinking of moving on. But in Rwanda, the most densely populated country in Africa, land is scarce.

In the 1990s, as this country reeled from a crushing civil war and the fastest genocide in history, this part of eastern Rwanda, Akagera National Park, was packed with refugees, militants, and farmers whose cows had nowhere to graze.

Now, zebras meander and giraffes loiter in this 1,100-square-kilometer reserve, while buffalo, elephants, crocodiles, and hippos march through the bush or bob in the lakes, and 530 different kinds of birds flutter above.

But locals say although the human war is over, conflict continues in and around the park between animals and people. Buffalo, elephants and hippos wander out, killing and maiming people, and eating crops. People march in, in groups as large as 100 strong, illegally killing everything from hippos to rabbits.

Theogene Semugisha oversees social services for Ndego, a district of almost 15,000 people who live around Akagera. He says as many as 80 percent of the people in his area lose crops every year to animals.

Bryan Havemann, the Akagera project manager for South African non-profit developers African Parks, says that every day animals are poached, and last year two rangers were shot and killed. He says the only way to stop poachers is to train rangers as a paramilitary fighting force. But he says even with training, rangers still lack ammunition and the authority to fight back.

For the rapidly growing population surrounding the park, the animals are as dangerous as the poachers. Last year, five people were killed and 15 wounded in animal attacks. Currently the Rwandan government is planning to build a $2.7 million electric fence, to keep the animals in the park. Havemann says if the fence is maintained, it could go a long way towards quieting the conflict.

In the meantime, villagers say they are barely surviving.

Mushimiyimana, lives hand-to-mouth on the crops she grows when the animals don’t raid the fields. A few years ago, a hippopotamus killed her husband. She says in the dry season, it is hard to feed her family with the crops they grow. When her husband went to the forest to forge for food one night, he met a hippo. Neighbors found his body, and he was buried the next day.

VOA News

John Deere Foundation, Opportunity International in Africa farming microfinance initiative

Opportunity International, a global non-profit microfinance organization providing access to savings accounts, small business loans, training and insurance products to two million people working their way out of poverty, on July 6 announced a $2.5 million grant from the John Deere Foundation, the primary philanthropic arm of Deere & Company.

Opportunity International will use the funding to expand access to financial services for farmers and other entrepreneurs in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda, through its "Banking on Africa" initiative.

"One of the John Deere Foundation's goals is to help eliminate hunger through initiatives that help manual farmers move from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture, resulting in enhanced security for the farmers, increased and sustainable food supplies and measurable economic growth in developing nations," said John Bustle, vice president, John Deere Foundation.

"We are impressed with the progress that Opportunity International has made in increasing access to financial services for African farmers, food processors and retailers. Likewise, we are excited and optimistic about Opportunity's ongoing efforts to create a sustainable framework for enhanced food security through increased food production, food availability at local markets and family income to purchase food."

Opportunity International combines the best of traditional microfinance with a rigorous understanding of the unique factors associated with smallholder agriculture in Africa, in an innovative agricultural finance model that has the potential to transform Africa's smallholder farmers from subsistence growers to cash crop producers.

"Opportunity International is creating a financial services model that is designed to increase the farmer's chance for success while mitigating his or her personal risk, and is one that goes far beyond just providing agricultural credit," said John Magnay, Opportunity International's senior agricultural advisor.

"In addition to providing access to savings accounts and loans, we are working with extension services and output markets, with objectives to improve crop productivity, increase incomes and directly impact the food supply within local communities for enhanced food security."

Opportunity International's savings-based microfinance services for entrepreneurs and farmers in developing countries include access to lending, personal savings accounts, small business insurance, and education. These programs combined create a financial safety net for farmers by helping them achieve financial freedom and gain the self-sufficiency needed to expand their businesses, create jobs and support the economic stability of their families and their communities.

"Demand for savings in rural areas is driven by the need for access to funds during seasonal agricultural cycles to support the household until the next harvest. Studies have shown that rural farmers desire more formal savings opportunities. As such, we estimate that 80 to 85 percent of our rural clients will access savings and insurance services," continued Magnay.

Through its "Banking on Africa" initiative, Opportunity International is providing much-needed access to financial services in rural areas to both agricultural and non-agricultural communities. The John Deere Foundation grant will help Opportunity International achieve its objectives to introduce 450 new access sites, extend agricultural loans to over 500,000 new clients, including 95,000 farmer clients, and open 1.4 million interest-bearings savings accounts, with 950,000 of those in rural areas. Plans are also in place to hire 200 agricultural loan officers in the next three years.

"Our relationship with the John Deere Foundation is integral to the successful expansion of our saving-based microfinance services across sub-Saharan Africa, and we are grateful for its continued investment in our organization," said Bill Morgenstern, Opportunity International CEO.

About John Deere Foundation

In addition to Solutions for World Hunger, the John Deere Foundation focuses on higher education and community betterment in locations with major operating facilities and large employee presence.

About Opportunity International

Opportunity International provides access to savings accounts, small business loans, insurance and training to over two million people working their way out of poverty in the developing world. Clients in more than 20 countries use these financial services to start or expand a business, provide for their families, create jobs for their neighbors and build a safety net for the future. For more information, visit www.opportunity.org.

African smallscale farmers trained in business skills

Over 400 farmers in DR Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda are poised to benefit from enhanced business and marketing skills thanks to a capacity-building project that aims at increasing their income in a bid to fight rural poverty.

Business plan training is being co-organized by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT) and the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU) in Burundi.

Most small scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, who make up a majority of the population and of the poor, lack proper business and marketing skills. Therefore, they are not able to maximize the benefits of their investments and remain poor despite all their hard work.

To address this, the Consortium for Improved Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA) has been training smallholder farmers to enhance their business and marketing skills to enable them to better manage their farm enterprises and engage with markets to improve their livelihoods.

The training covers a broad spectrum of activities, from basic farm management principles such as farm record keeping and analyzing the profitability of the farm enterprise to identifying good markets and laying out a business plan.

According to one of the lead trainers, Emily Ouma, an agricultural economist with IITA, “With the training, these farmers will be able to determine for themselves if they are making profit or not. If they are not, then they will be able to shift strategies. If they are, then they would be able to plan better to increase their profits even more, for example, through value addition such as sorting, grading, processing, and storing their produce, and selling when supply is low and demand is high.” 

Another facilitator, Eliud Birachi, an agribusiness specialist with of TSBF-CIAT, adds that most smallholder farmers neither keep records nor plan their production, harvesting and sales according to market demand. “Usually they first grow the crops then look for markets,” he says, “It should be the other way around. This often leads to a glut in the market and the farmers are forced to sell their produce at markedly lower prices than their production costs. Obviously this results in huge losses for them,” he said.

The CIALCA project brings together various partners and donors to improve farm level productivity through Integrated Soil Fertility Management and Integrated Pest and Disease Management. Sustainable farm level productivity requires improved commercialization which can be achieved by enhancing farmers’ access to input and profitable output markets. One way to realize this is by building farmers’ entrepreneurial skills.

www.iita.org

Drought to hit Rwanda 2011 farm output

Growth in Rwanda's agricultural output is seen slowing to 6 percent in 2011 from 7.1 percent last year due to a drought late in 2010, the country's agriculture minister said.

The eastern-central African country has invested in new agricultural production to raise food and export output, with agriculture a mainstay of recent economic growth.

"Agriculture growth this year will not be as good as the previous year's because of a drought at the end of last year, so we expect around 6 percent growth," Agnes Kalibata said a conference."Next year we go back to our original plan, 8 percent growth," she added.

Rwanda, rebuilding after a genocide devastated the country over a decade ago, has been investing heavily in the agriculture sector, with allocations from the state budget increasing to 10.2 percent in the current financial year from 2.7 percent in 2007.

Kalibata said increased agriculture investment would pave the way for Rwanda to reduce its dependence on two of its main imported crops -- rice and wheat.

"We are investing very strongly in irrigation systems that will see (rice) imports going down in the next three years," she said. "We will probably be importing about 10 percent from 40 percent now by 2014. In wheat we also have investments coming in that indicate... we could produce in the next two-to-three years about 50 percent of what we consume in the country," Kalibata added.

Rwanda currently produces 60 percent of the rice it consumes, importing the shortfall, while it imports about 60 percent of its wheat needs.

She said the country of about 11 million people did not have any food security fears, although the rising global cost of fuel and food prices could impact domestic inflation.

"Inflation is going up because some imported commodities are going up because fuel is influencing them," Kalibata said.

Rwanda's economic growth is forecast slowing to 7 percent in 2011 from 7.4 percent a year before, while inflation is projected to quicken to an average of 4.4 percent due to oil prices, the country's finance minister said in February.

Reuters

New Rwanda cassava factory nears completion

by Daniel Sabiiti

A new cassava processing plant in Rwanda's Ruhango district, worth Rwf5billion, is expected to boost economic activity, once complete in September.

The plant will have the capacity to process 250 tonnes of raw cassava and produce 60 tonnes of cassava flour on a daily basis.

Rwanda Development Bank (BRD) is funding the project.

According to Jack Kayonga, the BRD Managing Director, the state-of the-art facility will benefit both the residents and the country’s economy.

“The factory will increase the residents’ incomes and provide market for the local cassava farmers,” Kayonga said. “This is a step towards development and will enable Rwanda to compete in the regional market and reduce dependence on imported cassava products,” he added.

The Local leaders noted that the plant will buy cassava from farmers in other districts, including Ruhango, Kamonyi, Bugesera and Nyanza.

The cassava plant will create 68 full time jobs and many other temporary ones.

The New Times

Dry season sees drop in Rwandan tea output

by Alex Ngarambe

Tea production and sales have suffered to a low level compared to the earlier projection in the last three months due to the dry season.

According to Anthony Butera, the Managing Director of OCIR-The, the country's tea authority, the dry season in the last three months affected the earlier target in both production and sales hence having a negative impact on the farmers.

The total sales from January to September was 69,463,000 kgs of green leaf, while the made tea was 16,391,000 kgs against the projected 24 million kgs of made tea.

Also in the three months up to October, the production was 11.5 million kgs of green leaf tea against the target of 21 million kgs attributing, with the dip attributed to the huge slump to the drought hence generating $ 11.06 million.

However, Butera said that general prices at Mombasa auctioning market did not fall remaining at an average of $2.6 per kg while the local farmers still earned Rwf96.6 for every kg.

"The drought affects both the farmers and the country's general production because the low production means low revenues for the farmers hence a low income," added Butera.

Rwanda sells her tea mostly the Middle East countries as well as European countries.

allafrica.com

Rwanda’s coffee earnings for 2010 projected at $60 million

by Gertrude Majyambere

Rwanda’s coffee production this year will be 26 tonnes higher than last year and is expected to fetch some $60 million, a senior official said.

According to OCIR Café, the coffee authority in Rwanda, despite the shortfall in crop production, prices have been higher.

Alex Kanyankole, OCIR Café boss said that the 16 tonnes exported last year were valued at $38 million which was good given the fact that it was in the mid of the global commodities crisis.

“Coffee is considered as a necessity and that’s why it was not negatively affected by the global financial shake instead its consumption was increasing,” Kanyankole said.

Kanyankole added that coffee consumption per capita in America is at six percent while in Asia especially China, it is at 10 percent.

Apart from a typical coffee cycle, Kanyankole said that new plants will start yielding this year, paving way for increased production. Recently, the coffee body conducted soil and leaf analysis to identify the main deficiencies in the soil.

“We have exerted efforts to improve production along with the forecast of crop cycle and weather to register high records in the crop,” he said.

According to Kanyankole, new proposals have been set that would increase production and meet the orders.

Some of the sharp proposals include application of Nitrogen Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK), application of revised fertilizers and lining of coffee regions.

The coffee board official said the projected increase in production will positively impact coffee farmers due to increased demand that may push prices.

The New Times

Measures to boost agriculture bear fruit in Rwanda

Rwanda has recorded a sharp improvement in food security following the government's measures to boost agricultural production in 2009, officials said.
The government implemented a new agricultural strategy, which included timely distribution of seed and fertilizer, adoption of market-oriented farming methods and encouraging farmers to consolidate land.

"Timely distribution of farming inputs like fertilizers as well as improved seeds and a land consolidation programme boosted the sector in 2009," according to a report by the government-run Rwanda Agriculture Development Authority on the Crop Intensification Programme.

Agricultural officials said the strategy, coupled with improved crop husbandry methods, boosted the output of major food crops such as maize, potatoes, cassava and rice.

Agnes Kalibata, Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, said the government's aim was to end reliance on imported food by boosting local production. "We have the land, the physical and human resources to achieve our target," she said.

According to data from the Rwanda Agriculture Development Authority, maize output in 2009 increased to 286,948MT from 166,853MT in 2008 while wheat output reached 72,478MT from 67,868MT in 2008. During the same period, the production of Irish potatoes increased to 1.3 million MT from 1.1 million MT and rice production hit 95,105MT from 82,024MT in 2008.

Thanks to 2009’s bumper harvests, Rwanda’s grain reserves currently stand at 200,000MT, according to an official in the ministry of agriculture. This is enough to meet domestic food demand for eight months.

Under the Crop Intensification Programme, focus was on farming methods such as mulching and irrigation, aimed at ending reliance on changing weather patterns. Farmers were also discouraged from operating small fragmented farmlands and, officials said, the practice had particularly benefited maize farmers in Western Province, who are now cultivating in large plantations on a communal basis.

"Average maize yields in the province are now around 7MT per hectare, from an average of 4MT two years ago," said Paul Munyakazi, a research associate with USAID in the province. He attributed the increase to better seeds and successful education campaigns.

According to Pius Hitimana, head of a development and advocacy NGO, Bureau Social de Gitarama, the success of the government's agricultural programme was mainly due to rigorous efforts to control erosion.

"Farmers are not allowed to rear cattle on hilly slopes; this has helped in maintaining the integrity of terraces. Most importantly, people are now realizing that it's not just enough to practise subsistence farming," he said.

Rwanda’s target is to increase terraced land from 193,735ha to 1,000,400ha by the end of 2010.

On irrigation, Hitimana said farmers were not utilizing water resources well, mainly due to inappropriate technology and lack of funding. The crops benefiting from irrigation are those being cultivated in low-lying areas, such as rice, he added.

According to the National Institute of Statistics, improved food production in 2009 has stabilized food prices since September. Maize, cassava, potatoes, beans and peas remain stable, with some prices edging downwards.

The devastating effect of the banana wilt disease has meant that only bananas have recorded a price increase since September.

With an estimated nine million people occupying 26,338 sqkm of land and birth rates of 3.1 percent per annum, Rwanda remains one of the most densely populated countries in the world, making it prone to food insecurity.


IRIN

Rwanda targets 20 million litres of biofuel per annum in three years

Rwanda has signed on two foreign companies to start producing 20 million litres of biofuel annually from jatropha plants in three years time, the minister for energy said.

The UK-based Eco Positive and Eco-fuel Global LLC from the United States on Sunday agreed to invest $250 million in the growth of jatropha curcas, whose seeds yield oil.

"This investment will benefit Rwandans in terms of green development, preventing land erosion, create employment and more environmentally-friendly transport," Energy Minister Albert Butare said. "It is a significant step forward in giving our nation greater energy security essential to our economic success."

The central African country fully relies on fuel imports through the Kenyan or Tanzanian ports, which often creates shortages. Rwanda imports some 160 million litres of fuel annually and the biofuel project will produce about 13 percent of total fuel consumed, he said.

Butare sought to dispel fears that using 10,000 hectares for jatropha would be too much for the tiny, densely populated country and affect food security.

"This has been marginal land which is less or not productive at all for agriculture. They will first increase the quality of the land before they start growing the crop," he said. "It will have no direct impact on agriculture production since it was not being used at all."

Rwanda already has successfully implemented a pilot bio-diesel project by the Institute of Scientific Research and Technology currently producing 2,000 litres daily from Jatropha.

Reuters

Rwanda tea export revenues up

by Saul Butera

Rwanda’s tea export revenues increased by 6.45 percent in the first half of the financial 2009 (January-June) compared to last year’s first half, officials of the tea authority stated.

According to the statistics, the tea netted $16.5 million (Rwf9.4 billion) up from $15.5 million (Rwf8.8 billion) during the same period last year representing the 6.45 percent increase.

“The increase is attributed to long drought this year that made the production of tea very low, making a constant increase in prices of tea for a long period,” said Anthony Butera, Director General of Ocir-Thé. He added that the tea authority is expecting to continue enjoying good prices since production levels have not fully regained because the rainy season has just started.

Ocir-Thé, is targeting 9,000 hectares of tea plantations by 2012. The agency is also planning to increase tea production by 35,000 metric tonnes by 2012.

At Mombasa tea auction which hosts the sale of tea from the region, Rwandan tea traded at $0.96 higher than the previous week, rising from $2.17 to $3.13.

Officials at Ocir-Thé said the market seems to remain constant. Officials said that there is a low supply and a high demand at the international market. The tea authority says that they predict that the prices will remain at the same range until production increases depending on the weather conditions.

Statistics from the tea body show that for a long period, Gisovu has been offering the best teas from Rwanda on the Mombasa tea auction.

Revenues from tea has risen from $21.4m in 2007 to $28.9m as of last year. Projections show a rise in this financial year.

Tea is one of Rwanda’s leading export revenue earners.

Rwanda Times