Rwanda Natural Resources Authority plans to step up its collaboration with farmers to ensure that at least 46,000 acres are planted with trees every year.

The move, according to Adrie Mukashema, the deputy Director General in charge of Forestry and Nature Conservation, follows realisation that most farmers do not practice agroforestry despite several sensitisation campaigns in the past on the benefits of such agricultural practices.

"A farmer is the custodian of his or her land; and whatever you do, if a farmer is not involved, you won’t succeed,” she said during a recent dialogue organised by the World Agroforestry Centre. 

World Agroforestry Centre is a consortium formed by governments, private foundations, international NGOs and regional banks to generate science-based knowledge on the role played by trees in improved agriculture productivity and poverty alleviation. Its headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya with regional offices in Cameroon, Indonesia, India and Peru.

Mukashema said that the strategy is to teach farmers how to combine crop or animal farming with tree planting for increased and sustainable production.

Agroforestry is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use systems.

Jeremias Mowo, the Regional Coordinator World Agroforestry Centre in Eastern and Southern Africa, however blamed low participation by farmers in tree planting on the lack of seedlings suitable for their needs.

"Farmers have shunned tree farming because we have not been giving them the necessary support. They need to be advised on which species they need to plant, where and for what purpose; as well as support in management of the trees,” he said. 

Athanase Mukuralinda, a senior scientist in agroforestry says they are now consulting with all stakeholders on how to boost tree planting to avert environmental calamities in future.

"We need to understand what farmers know about agroforestry and how they obtained that knowledge and continue to build on it. So we are visiting farmers to see what they are doing on their farms so that we address the challenges,” he said.

According to the City of Kigali State of Environment and Outlook report, 2013, about 30 per cent of city residents used firewood for cooking between 2010 and 2011; while charcoal usage was up by 65 per cent over the same period.

This means that demand for wood fuel remains high and exerts pressure on the country’s forest cover which can only be mitigated by concerted efforts to plant more trees.