The Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) is in a drive to link grain producers, processors, traders and consumers in the region to improve the grain trade within the region.

Speaking at a business-to-business (B2B) linkage facilitation meeting in Kigali, on Wednesday, Gerald Makau Masila, the executive director of the Eastern Africa Grain Council, said the grain value chain would improve if only people engaged in the sector worked more closely.

He said, "We need to share market information to improve our grain value chain. Before producing, farmers should know what to produce for a season and who to produce for. There is a need for market linkages to ensure we have a good and well structured grain trade to develop the sector in our region.”

Some of the challenges facing the industry include increased residual tariffs, non-tariff barriers, lack of well established trading platforms, weak and fragmented market information systems and limited knowledge on how to create supportive policies.

Others are limited awareness of the export and import procedures and opportunities as well as the poor value chain, which has always been at the helm of post-harvest losses.

However, Ambassador Phillip Idro, the managing director of Upland Rice Millers co.Ltd in Jinja, Uganda, said the main challenge impeding the development of the agriculture sector is mindset and poor perception about agriculture itself

He said, "The concept of agriculture is not well understood, neither by farmers nor by governments. Most of the people think about production before consumption whereas consumption should be the one to guide us on what and when to produce. This has always led to recurring complaints about the market. If we perceive agriculture as a business, I hope the whole value chain would be improved.”

Eugene Rwibasira, the chairman of the board of directors for Rwanda Grains and Cereals Corporation, said the business-to-business linkages are a solution to access to market information that has been questionable and an opportunity for grain producers to expand their businesses.

‘‘We come from different corners of the region. Some are grain producers, others are processors, traders or consumers. With the linkages each of us will be able to identify who are the producers of what one processes, who are the buyers of what another processes or who are the consumers of what one produces or processes.

Once identified it will be an occasion to expand business,’’ Rwibasira said.

Dr Charles Murekezi, the director general for crop production at the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources in Rwanda, said Rwanda has put in place measures to tackle the issue of access to market information to improve trading system in agriculture.

"It is important to create linkages to help those involved in grain trading to access market information. In Rwanda we have established strategies to make market information easily accessible through such initiatives as the e.soko platform,” Dr Murekezi said.

The Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) operates as a non-profit, non-political, non-denominational organisation, which prepares, disseminates, and promotes the exchange of information on matters affecting the regional grain industry.

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