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Agriculture
is the backbone of Rwanda's economy providing
over 44% of the country's GDP and about 92% employment
of the Rwandan population. However, today the
sector is faced with lower agricultural productivity,
declining soil fertility and environmental degradation.
What are today your main investment priorities?
Yes Agriculture supports over 90% of our population.
As you may be aware, urbanization rate is below
10% so the biggest percentage lives in rural areas
and there's no any other trade or business they
do except Agriculture. It is the farmer that drives
the entire economy.
Now our Agriculture is not developed, it exists
in the traditional form and has been like that for
centuries. Farming performed for subsistence purposes.
It is so unfortunate that not until of recent, government
policy also aimed at this.
With the exception of a small cash crop sector of
coffee and tea, the rest of the production was geared
towards satisfying the needs of the family. And
so happened that they hardly satisfied themselves
because they never worked hard to have any surplus.
The urban centers and non-farming communities such
as institutions and schools were fed with foodstuff
imported from outside. So the major problem is the
structure of the agricultural sector, being subsistence
and also being very undeveloped.
Now the government policy has been to have agricultural
sector that is sustainable and profitable. To me
agriculture is a valuable business for the farmers
because it is all that supports them. Our aim has
been to create a market-oriented agriculture. We
have had to emphasize agriculture intensification
and agriculture commercialization.
In intensification, there is need to employ modern
methods of agricultural production. Meaning that
we have to look at the genetic part of the crops
and animals, the quality of the soils, the nutrition
of these domestic animals and also improve the management.
So these are aspects that call for one to change
methods of work.
Intensification is also dictated by the shortage
of Rwanda's farmland. As you may be aware we have
about 1 million hectares of land for farming for
a population of about 8 million. So on average you
find that farming land per household stands at less
than 0.7 ha and in areas that are densely populated,
it as low as 0.4 ha per household given that some
lands are not arable. The population by 2015 will
have doubled and definitely the farm size will drop
to below 0.5ha. So such pressures leads to land
fragmentation, intermixing of different crops on
the small farmlands and precisely, production for
household consumption.
We tell these farmers to consider specialization
on the agricultural crops, according to the market
and opportunities and abilities of the farmers.
They have to look at commercialisation, produce
for the market. This would be one way of improving
the standards of living within the rural economies.
But obviously these reforms will require a reduction
in the number of farmers?
For us in the ministry, we think that with commercialization
improved economies of scale will bring profit. So
as people get more organised and streamline their
farming and realise better profit margins then it
should be possible for part of the population to
exit from agriculture into off-farm activities.
It should be able to go into industries of agro-
processing type and the service sector. By so doing
they should be able to abandon and vacate some land.
It is our goal that in the next 30 years, if the
strategies and what we advocate is done, the number
of people engaged in farming should have dropped
to half, say 50%. But this calls for high investment
and serious commercialisation of farming.
On top of commercialising and intensifying the
sector, your call has been diversifying into agro-based
industries. How are you handling the issue of converting
the farmers or specifically encouraging the farmers
to launch businesses in agro-based industries?
We believe that the communities are not insensitive
to the laws of demand. The moment they improve their
methods of farming and able to produce more then
they will attract investors or industrialists who
also are going to mobilize financial resources for
this work.
The government campaign has been trying to orient
people to specialize in one profitable enterprise
and that's why we have been calling people to venture
into cereals. Much of the farming has been devoted
to production of root crops but now we are saying
that cereals are equally good. For example our land
is very suitable for rice, maize and beans. So we
encourage them to shift from root crops to grains
because they are easier to transport, easier to
store and the required technology for processing
is easily accessible.
Are the farmers responding positively to those
government initiatives?
Yes, for example rice production is increasing by
the day also maize output has greatly improved.
The major constraint has been the quality of the
soils; fertility has been very low. We have been
campaigning and making the necessary measures like
reduction of tariffs from importation of fertilizers,
creation of micro lending to farmers from cooperatives
to enable them acquire the fertilizers.
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We have
farmer-training programs in which we train one farmer
from a sector level to go and help train others
and it is done from district to district. We teach
them basic concepts of agronomy, how to handle their
produce and organize themselves together in the
market.
How many farmers have you trained now?
In the last two years we have trained over 8,000
farmers. We have done it using the agriculture extension
service workers, NGO and specialized local organizations
that we contract.
Do you have a time frame for this program to
be fully implemented?
We do believe that within the next four years we
should have achieved a substantial level of commercialisation
in the farms. Different associations and cooperatives
have been developed to help farmers in the rice,
tea and coffee sectors.
How much is the total budget for this program?
We have got a loan from the World Bank (IDA) to
support the rural sector in agricultural transformation.
The loan is for years and the amount is USD 165
Millions. We also have other small loans for livestock
and forestry.
The traditional cash crops for Rwanda are coffee
and tea. Up to 400,000 farmers are engaged in coffee
production. What are the current development trends
in those areas?
The only change we have done is liberalizing the
sectors. We have restructured our coffee
and tea authorities. These were mere government
marketing boards and we have changed them into regulatory
bodies. For coffee sector, this is perfect. All
the coffee produced, processed and then exported
is entirely done by the private sector.
The tea sector is likewise only that the government
body, OCIR THE is still engaged in marketing because
the process of privatizing is taking long. We have
been encouraging our locals to participate in the
buying of these companies though the campaign is
also on for foreign investors. We have one of the
top quality tea in the world.
Animal husbandry remains a dormant sector in
agriculture. Livestock kept includes mainly cattle.
What programs have you suggested to improve the
productivity of the sector?
We have been also advocating for intensive type
of livestock production, which actually demands
that livestock production be largely in confinement.
This calls for investment in animals that are of
high quality. Now of the 850,000 heads of cattle
that are in this country, you find that only 10%
have genetic quality that would be favorable for
good returns. The rest are indigenous cattle which
in terms of milk are low producers about 150-200
litres during 8 months lactation. What we are doing
now is to try and improve the quality through cross
breeding with exotic breeds that are of European
type mainly. The mentality of our cattle keepers
is to keep more heads of cattle regardless of quality
but our policy has been to reduce the numbers and
improve the quality. We are also making a serious
move to fight diseases.
We intend to raise the contribution of livestock
from the current level of about 10% of Agriculture
to probably between 30-50% in the next 6 to 10 years.
We have also imported pure breeds from outside to
avoid acute shortage of milk.
On the side of poultry, we are trying to rehabilitate
the sector, improve the breeds and supply exotic
ones. The other sector is sheep and goats, which
we are also trying to import, improved quality so
that we can again improve the indigenous breeds.
Your ministry is also responsible for forestry
protection. What measures are you putting in place
to protect the forests as one major tool for fighting
soil erosion?
Over 70% of our forests were destroyed during the
genocide and the subsequent years. Natural forests
were completely destroyed and so we have embarked
on massive program of re-afforestation. We have
mounted a campaign of planting 30,000ha every year
for six years.
This has meant that we have had to freeze the cutting
down of forests especially government forests. By
government forests we mean those set up by government
for environmental purposes, especially on slopes.
We have established a strict law that curbs all
those involved in cutting down of trees for any
purposes. Because of the limited land, we have embarked
on agro-forestry as well as afforestation.
Now on protection of our soils, we have been using
afforestation as one measure but the other method
has been getting anti-erosion measures on the slopes.
Much of the farming land in Rwanda has a slope of
over 30%. So we have been on a campaign of putting
in place protective channels that will stop runoff,
protecting them with grass cover and making a general
awareness of the masses on these issues.
We are formulating some projects that will involve
labor-intensive agricultural works through which
we offer employment thereby giving capacity to rural
communities. It is from this that rural incomes
will double, standards of living improve and social
services also improve to benefit the masses and
partly also transform the agricultural sector. |
