Today's National Harvest Day, locally known as Umuganura, is worth celebrating owing to this year’s crop yields, farmers said yesterday. 

Umuganura festival, a local concept of the Thanksgiving Day, is marked annually on the first Friday of August.

This year’s national celebrations are taking place in Nyagatare District under the theme: "Umuganura, a foundation of unity and self-reliance.” 

This festival is organised in a bid to promote the traditional culture of valuing the achievements and crop yields from the country’s soil, according to the Ministry of Sports and Culture.

"However, different from the ancient time’s celebrations, Umuganura has got a broader meaning; from being initially about an agro-based harvest celebration to include striking achievements from other key sectors aimed at national development,” the ministry said in a statement.

Traditionally, Umuganura festival was a royal ritual to thank God for having provided crops.

"It was a good cultural component which brought together the rich and poor to share the banquets. It was marked at the king’s palace and in families,” said Pastor Ezra Mpyisi, 93, a resident of Kagarama Sector, Kicukiro District.

Speaking to The New Times, Pr. Mpyisi recalled that though he did not participate in any Umuganura even because he converted to Christianity at an early age, the day was marked by offering some crops to the king, who, in turn, offered citizens seeds deemed to be blessed for a better yield in the following season.

The same happened in households, where the man used to take the king’s position to receive crops from his children and offer blessings for a good harvest, he added.

Sarah Nyiramahe, 86, a resident of Rusororo, Gasabo District, observed that Rwandans no longer attach value to Umuganura festival as it was in the past.

However, the Minister for Sports and Culture, Julienne Uwacu, explained that including all achievements in Umuganura celebrations does not distort the culture, but gives value to all players in national development.

"We have not altered Umuganura festival; we are maintaining it. As opposed to the monarchial era when the main activities for income-generation were agriculture and livestock, we currently have more economic activities of which achievements must be celebrated. So, this is a great opportunity to think of new ways to attain sustainable development,” she said.

In separate interviews, various farmers told The New Times that this season’s production is worth celebrating.

"We harvested better yields this time round than we had in any of the previous seasons. I harvested 7 tonnes of maize from 1.5 hectares, up from 5.5 tonnes last season from the same piece of land,” said Aimable Sibomana, a resident of Musaza Sector, Kirehe District.

Although there are no planned Umuganura celebrations in his community, Sibomana said he would mark the day in his family.

Athanase Murenzi, the coordinator of a rice growers’ cooperative in Rurambi marshland, Bugesera District, said they had already harvested 700 tonnes of rice from 450 hectares, but they project to get over 1,000 tonnes, up from 700 tonnes last season.

Cyprien Munyarugendo, another farmer in Kirehe District, said he harvested 600kg of maize in the first season, while he got only 300kg last year.

However, farmers said market prices are still unfriendly to them and appealed to the government for better markets of their produce.

Rice growers across the country faulted the rice firms for delaying payments, but the firms say the demand for the crop is small.

RAB statistics

Statistics from Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) indicate that crop and livestock production has been gradually increasing over the years, thanks to use of fertilisers, improved seeds and land consolidation, among other mechanisms.

Dr Telesphore Ndabamenye, the head of crop production and food security department at RAB, told The New Times, yesterday, that there was bumper harvest in both season A and B of this year.

"The season A, 2015 yielded 900,000 tonnes of maize and beans each, while Irish production stood at 2m tonnes countrywide. Wheat, rice and soya were also commendable yields at 16,000 tonnes, 46,000 tonnes and 15,000 tonnes respectively,” he said.

Dr Ndabamenye said RAB is yet to gather all figures about this season’s crop production, but noted that they project better harvests than the last season due to friendly weather conditions, among others.

According to Dr Alphonse Nshimiyimana, the director of animal production at RAB, 70 per cent of Rwandan households keep livestock.

Statistics indicate that the number of cattle increased from 1,132,231 in 2012/2013 to 1,143,553 in 2013/2014, while the population of goats, sheep and pigs decreased.

The country’s targets by 2017 stand at annual production of 730,133 tonnes from 706,030 tonnes of milk; 410, 808 tonnes from 76,830 tonnes of meat; 112,000 tonnes from 25,000 tonnes of fish; and, 11,718 tonnes from 6,724 tonnes of eggs in 2014.

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