The recently concluded Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA and the agricultural science week that took place in Kigali attracted many people from different countries around the world.

Most of them were from agricultural and development organisations. Organised under the theme ,‘Apply Science, Impact Livelihood’, the delegates deliberated on the future of agriculture and ways to improve it on the African continent.

The New Times’ Solomon Asaba caught up with Dr Kenton Dashiell, the deputy director general, partnerships for the delivery at the International Institute for Agriculture, IITA.

Below are excerpts:

There is a strong connection between poverty reduction and agriculture in agro-based economies, what is your take on Rwanda’s agro-based initiatives?

There is a strong team in Rwanda working on cassava, soybeans to improve total productivity and income. Overall they are very good and encouraging. We see great strides for agriculture in Rwanda. Although I may not have the details of how this country has done it, I have seen reports with my own eyes. This is a big congratulation to the farmers, the private entrepreneurs and the government.

When it comes to improving agriculture one of the biggest challenges has been that few research findings get implemented, what do you think should be done to improve execution of research results on farms?

I think there are several things that can be done. The first one is that a careful examination of government policies and government institutions can ensure that farmers have the enabling environment to do their agriculture.

For example if a farmer is growing rice for the family but also sells this to get income, profitability will depend on whether the government is allowing importation of very cheap rice from other countries.

If that happens, the imported rice destroys market for the local farmers. Another one might be poor infrastructure like roads; the farmer could be harvesting crops in the right proportions but to move them from the farm to the market becomes difficult because of transport. You literally have to carry that rice, which is a challenge and that is the reason government policies, are very crucial.

One of your projects Consortium for Improving Agricultural Livelihoods in Central Africa, CIALCA, celebrated 10 years, what are some of the achievements?

This project has been working on the whole systems of farms. The way it operates is that if they were let to improve your maize, they look at the whole farm so that your income is increased and the nutrition of your family improved.

Last year, there was a study conducted in Burundi, eastern DR Congo and Rwanda which showed that cassava had contributed to bringing over half a million people out of poverty. We are very glad to see that and it is the overall achievement.

How do you think eco-system management affects agricultural production in the Great Lakes region?

When farmers grow crops, they take full advantage of the environment and so in many ways, this means doing the right agricultural practices. In an eco-system, it is important to plant crops on time and those that would do best depending on the farm soils and environment.

Farmers also need to manage their resources well, for instance fertilisers. Farmers should also be able to plant crops on the right dates and consider integrating this with animals like cattle, sheep and goats so that residues are fed to the animals once foods like beans are harvested. The cattle in this case generate meat and milk; the dung can also be utilised for fertiliser or biogas.

The topic on fertilisers is a bit interesting especially in this era when inorganic fertilisers are receiving a backlash from people who say only organic foods are healthy, what is your assessment on these developments?

To be straight forward, I don’t agree with them. For those farmers who want and desire to go organic may be because that is their belief or because they want higher prices for their harvest, its right. But I also strongly believe that those farmers who want to achieve high yields of their maize, cassava and beans need to have access to correct fertilisers and with sufficient training and knowledge and how to use those fertilisers properly.

In the Great Lakes region, value addition is talked about many times but we have seen challenges, what do you think should be done for farmers who need more value for money from their produce?

Well as much as possible, in a community, there needs to be a value addition capability, so let’s take cassava for example; when there is a small industry in town which can process cassava into flour, bag it nicely, label it; that will sell a lot more than just raw cassava.

So in that community it will create jobs, additional income and also enable the farmer to have a market right there in the community. They don’t have to carry the cassava far away and you know that is hard work carrying the cassava. What might be one metric tonne of cassava now becomes 300 kg of flour so you have a lot less weight to transport to the market and you earn a lot from that flour compared to one metric tonne of unprocessed cassava.

Besides the one metric tonne of raw cassava will be spoiled if you don’t sell it in 48 years. In case that happens it would be zero income. The good news for processed cassava is that even, excess flour could also be easily stored.

Malnutrition is one of the unmet MDG’s in Rwanda but agriculture was cited as one of the channels that could address the problem right from the household level, how best could this be done?

Three main points that I would consider here, one is education of the mothers who feed their children and feed the families; diversification of foods is also very important and nutritional education of what is good and how it can be done.

There are two ways to diversify a diet, one is to have different foods on the farm and harvest them appropriately, so that someone has maize, cassava, beans, milk, vegetable and fruits. From those things you can achieve proper nutrition based on a balanced diet. If those things are not available on the farm then the farmers need to sell their harvest so they can afford to buy them.

How do you compare the agricultural knowledge delivery in this region?

We can’t say that every farmer needs that same information. One at the top of the hill may need totally different information from the other at the bottom.

You might have a farmer with a bank account and a lot of money in it and another one without money. I think this should be the take home message; that good recommendations should go for different farmers and this is what organisations and private institutions need to understand.

Genetically modified foods are also facing criticism from people; most times they have been associated with diseases, do you agree with the perceptions that these foods are not safe for consumption?

First of all I absolutely agree with the laws of any country and we have to respect that. If GMO’s are banned, then it is not appropriate to supply them. However, GMO’s have been tested and found to be safe by scientists, they have gone through the release procedure in a country where they are used and for that have full faith that they are safe.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw