The Ministry of Agriculture is back in the news for all the wrong reasons after Parliament ordered its officials to recover billions of francs owed to government by farmers within six months. The more than Rwf11 billion accrued from fertiliser loans advanced to farmers over the past five years. Normally, the money is expected to be paid after every harvest season under the fertiliser supply scheme. According to the Ombudsman’s 2014/15 report, farmers from across the country owe Rwf11.1 billion to the government for fertilisers distributed between 2010 and 2015. The Auditor General last year discovered that the Agriculture ministry bought equipment that is not suitable for the Rwandan terrain, causing losses to government.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the ministry has no clear strategies to recover fertiliser loans advanced to farmers. It is sad that the ministry officials don’t even know the exact amount of money owed government or those supposed to pay it. Therefore, the call by MPs for tangible measures to recover the money has been long coming. It is mistakes like this that have continued to affect the growth and productivity of the agriculture sector.

Farmers who still owe government money will most likely not participate in projects that seek to improve the agriculture industry for fear of being reprimanded.

The situation is made worse by the thinking that all government support services are free. Therefore, the onus is on the Agriculture ministry to devise strong mechanisms to recover the money, and also guard against situations where taxpayers money is lost due to negligence. Why would the ministry have to wait for the Ombudsman’s report to act (start investigations into the issue)? Hopefully, the investigations will also cover fertiliser dealers to rule out the issue of collusion between some of the parties involved in the scheme.