The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources has started a nationwide campaign to promote agriculture mechanisation to improve the sector’s performance.

The drive also seeks to raise awareness on use of farm machinery to increase production and enhance quality along the value chain, Tony Nsanganira, the State Minister for Agriculture, has said.

It will be conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Workforce Development Authority, which will train farmers in modern farming technologies. Nsanganira said farmers will be equipped with skills on how to use farm machinery including ploughs, spraying and irrigation equipment, and ICT solutions.

He said the initiative was in line with government’s programme to modernise the agriculture sector.

"We want you to adopt modernise farming methods to improve crop production, ensure food security and increase your household income,” Nsanganira told farmers in Mugesera, Ngoma District in Eastern Province while launching the campaign last week.

Rwanda’s agricultural mechanisation stands at 13 per cent, an increase from only 3 per cent in 2009. Nsanganira said the government is targeting to increase the level of mechanisation to 25 per cent by 2017, and to 50 per cent by 2020.

The drive is, therefore, being viewed by sector analysts as a big step toward achieving the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II) objectives, besides boosting productivity and creating more 200,000 off-farms jobs.

Albert Nsengiyumva, the State Minister in charge of TVET, said the move will also promote value-addition in the sector as a stimuli to boost the exports sector.

Nsengiyumva, added that the campaign will encourage farmers to adopt better agro-practices to ensure the country is food secure.

The government strengthened training in agriculture mechanisation in some of the technical institutes, like Gishari Integrated Polytechnic and Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre-South.

Commercialisation of the agricultural sector is one of the key components of the country’s strategic plan for the transformation of agriculture that is aimed at reducing household poverty to drive growth over the next five years.

EDPRS II gives priority to rural development, especially creating of more off-jobs to transform the country into a middle-income economy.

Farmers, experts and agro-dealers say the drive will attract more investors into the agriculture sectors.

"The approach will make it more appealing for investors to scale up funding into the industry,” Alice Muhirwa, an agronomist and the manager of Eden Business Centre, said.

Agriculture employs more than 70 per cent and is the largest contributor to the country’s GDP with up to 31 per cent in the first five months of the year.

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