Senators want to see efforts to boost modern farming intensified as a way of increasing agricultural output to cater for both domestic markets and export of surplus.  

The senators in the committee in charge of economic development and finance were yesterday meeting members of the Private Sector Federation’s chamber of agriculture as part of government oversight on national programmes, a session that aimed at looking at how the sector can be improved to play a significant role in the country’s development.

During the session, the senators said that despite proper policies in place like land consolidation and crop intensification, among others, there has been lack of an efficient organisational mechanism, which have kept many subsistent farmers in isolated agriculture practices yielding so little.

Senator Chryologue Karangwa decried lack of awareness and historical mindset that have constrained farmers not to embrace the national programmes of, say, operating in cooperatives through which they can optimally use their land.

"In all districts we have so far toured, we have constantly noticed resistance to organised farming and yet people still decry poor produce, lack of market, continuous posting of losses even for those who managed to stand out, it’s a really national challenge,” he said.

Paradigm shift

According to Prof. Karangwa, there is a need for a paradigm shift and more interventions from government institutions specifically Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB), which have been in place for some time but is yet to push the sector to a sustainable level.

"Although we are yet to submit our resolutions to the plenary, we have identified main challenges that include lack of seeds, seeds that are safe and specific for designated areas, there is little amount of fertilisers and the ability to know which one to use depending on market need,” the senator said.

While farmers still struggle to satisfy the domestic market, according to Karangwa, even the few that manage to get surplus for the bigger market, like international, get problems of keeping up with the clients’ expectations while many of them can’t have their products certified.

Examples cited by senators are some of the highly billed factories that have been inhibited by failure to produce at the maximum and have accumulatively been incurring losses and debts because they cannot get raw materials.

"Take the example of Kinazi Cassava Plant, during the inception of the factory, people thought they lacked market, but as soon as the plant was availed it couldn’t even function at the average rate of its expectations. They now import raw materials (cassava) from neighbouring countries which also comes with other challenges for the economy,” Karangwa said.

"It is the same issue in the case of another factory in Nyabihu that was supposed to process Irish potatoes, when they started it was all good, but now the factory has come to a standstill. We need proper thinking on how we can replenish these infrastructures in place.”

On the other hand, farmers who conceded to failure of working together called on the senators to advocate on some of the challenges around clearance and formalities in some of the government offices which take longer than expected on top of calling for more incentives.

"The Government should also allow us to deal quickly with some formalities down here; for example, we would need timely services from RAB on seed processing, fertiliser distribution, bigger hectares of land to expand farms and all that require formalities which take longer,” said Martha Birungi, a farmer in Gatsibo District who is also the deputy chairperson of National Seed Association of Rwanda.

Birungi told the senators that the Government, in terms of incentives should help farmers access affordable bank loans and insurance cover.

According to Gerald Nkusi Mukubu, chief advocacy officer at Private Sector Federation, it was realised that farmers produce less and incur exorbitant costs of production and it will need more efforts to access bigger markets.

"To acquire some international standard certificates like ISO and others has been a challenge and they would use any help possible from the government, thus we are looking forward to work on that faster not to lose any market,” said Mukubu.

At the senate level, Jacqueline Muhongayire, the chairperson of the committee, said members will gather more information from other stakeholders like RAB and the Ministry of Agriculture itself before they submit their final report to the plenary and propose resolutions to the government.

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