Transparency International Rwanda and its partners has initiated a project aimed at increasing participation of farmers in planning, implementation and monitoring of agriculture projects using district performance contracts (Imihigo).

Launched in Kigali, on Friday, the project will be implemented in Kayonza District in the Eastern Province and Nyanza in the Southern and is expected to directly benefit 1300 members of farmers’ associations as well as thousands of farmers in the two districts. Appolinaire Mupiganyi, the Executive Director of Transparency International Rwanda, explained why agriculture was chosen.

"We chose to work on service delivery in agriculture because the sector is recognised in EDPRS II and in upcoming EDPRS III as one of the priority sectors that will boost economic growth and contribute to poverty reduction,” he said. "This is a pilot phase to be implemented in the two districts. The outcome will serve lessons which will be replicated in other districts to influence agriculture sector policy at national level. We are committed to ensure a smooth coordination to achieve expected results,” he said.

The 5-year project is funded by the World Bank to a tune of $ 790,000.

World Bank Country Manager, Yasser El-Gamal, underscored the role of citizens’ involvement.

"Agriculture is an extremely important sector. In Rwanda, a lot of achievements have happened but it’s time to have different directions by involving farmers which is pertinent to the growth and sustained success of this sector,” he noted. "It’s a good initiative that we are happy to be working with the government and local NGOs and this collaboration is going to enhance the level of participation by citizens for them to see more of their priorities reflected in the plans and implementation.”

According to Citizen Report Card, an annual survey on citizen’s perception on services delivered to them, agriculture is one of the sectors that scored the lowest, 55.3 per cent in 2015 and 48.4 per cent in 2016 which attests to need for service improvement in the sector.

It was observed that this is based on the fact that citizens are yet to understand that participation is their right, leaders not doing enough to involve them as well as low participation of nonstate actors that were urged to step up their input.

Agriculture accounts for 33 per cent of the national GDP while 70 per cent of the labour force is employed in the sector.

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