Leveraging technology and innovation is vital to addressing the existing challenges affecting food production and agricultural sector growth, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Animal Resources, Eric Rwigamba, has said.

The challenges include climate change, low farm productivity or crop yield, pests and diseases, post-harvest losses, and limited access to financial services for farmers.

Rwigamba made the observations on November 22, as he opened a three-day knowledge-sharing seminar for the development of the fifth Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA5), under the theme 'Building Resilient and Sustainable Food Systems.'

"As we embark on the development of PSTA5, we have to reflect on these challenges. We must leverage technology and innovation to increase productivity and resilience,” he said.

The development of PSTA5, which is a strategic plan to guide agriculture interventions and investment in the country, is taking place as PSTA4 – which was launched in 2018 and will come to an end on June 30, 2024.

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Small-scale farming in Rwanda is marked by low production, resulting in low yields for both crops and livestock, he noted, emphasising that "the low incomes for our farmers are a significant challenge.”

For instance, he said that there are some farmers who get 2.5 tonnes of maize per hectare, yet others get 10 or 12 tonnes of maize per hectare, which points to the need to invest in farming practices that raise farm output for those whose yields are still very low.

He also talked about the low uptake of quality seed among farmers, with only 37.1 per cent of our small-scale farmers using improved seeds, "meaning that the rest are using any sorts of seeds.”

Again, he indicated, access to finance for the agricultural sector is still limited, with only 6 per cent of loans disbursed by financial institutions in the country going to the agricultural sector.

This situation, he said, contradicts the fact that agriculture is very critical to Rwanda "because it employs almost 65 per cent of our working population, it contributes 25 per cent of our GDP, and it offers 34 per cent of our national export earnings”.

"Our goal is to raise the percentage of loans going into agriculture to at least 10 per cent among other crucial interventions, hence enabling our small-scale farmers to invest in their operations effectively,” he said.

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Regarding resilience to climate change, Rwigamba said that only 14 per cent of agriculture households currently practice some sort of irrigation, expressing concern that this rate is low given the existence of drought that causes crop failure, which he said underscores the need to scale up irrigation effort.

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While Rwanda targeted to have irrigated 102,000 hectares of farmland by 2024, only over 71,500 hectares are under irrigation so far, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources.

The UN Resident Coordinator in Rwanda, Ozonnia Ojielo, said that reaching the Sustainable Goal (SDG) 2 which seeks to end hunger, requires urgent action, including a massive investment in sustainable, equitable, healthy, and resilient food systems, investing in people – in poor people – and betting on them.

"The State of Food Security and Nutrition report that was published in July this year (2023) by our UN agencies – FAO, IFAD, and WFP – showed that one in five persons in Africa is going hungry. And in Rwanda, 20 per cent of our population is food insecure,” he said.

"So, we need to make meaningful progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 to achieve zero hunger and to build systems that can ensure people have access to affordable, nutritious food wherever they live,” he observed.

Meanwhile, Rwigamba pointed out that PSTA4 contributed to reducing stunting prevalence among children from 34.9 per cent in 2018 to 32.4 per cent in 2021, but said that greater effort must be made to further address this plight.

Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (Gain) said the entity is supporting the Government of Rwanda to make sure that agriculture transformation policy is really not only climate resilient and environmentally sustainable, and generally supports job creation and wealth, but is also good for nutrition.

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"PSTA5 needs to have more impact on nutrition than PSTA4,” he said.

"I would like to see a bit more focus on things like vegetables, beans, fruits, and fish. These are foods that have high nutrient content and are quite expensive for Rwandans to get access to. So, this will be a big bonus to their nutrition,” he said.