Three years ago, Anastase Rwabizankwaya, a farmer who hails from Gatore sector in Kirehe district launched a project to dry and process banana into powder that is used to make different cakes.

Sunday Times caught up with farmer on Saturday after graduating from a three-week training in which Chinese agricultural experts and Rwanda Agricultural Board equipped Rwandan farmers with skills to boost processing and preservation technologies of agricultural products.

He said that he came up with the initiative as a long-term solution to reduce post-harvest losses for vegetables and fruits.

"We have gained more skills in terms of technologies to improve on processing and preserving vegetable and fruits which I started three years ago with banana crops that dry and process into powder,” he said.

Rwabizankwaya who grows bananas on two hectares said that he set up a company dubbed "KUC Ltd” that produces banana powder into cakes.

"Fruits and vegetables quickly decay if you do not immediately get market. This has always led farmers to count losses by selling at giveaway prices or through rotting away due to lack of market,” he said.

He said that he gets Rwf200,000 as profit from harvesting banana produce every month after deducting all expenses and when he adds value to it, the profit increases.

"100 Kilogrammes of banana produce 10 Kg of powder. I sell one Kilogramme of powder at Rwf2,000,” he said.

Bananas are a traditional and priority crop for food security in Rwanda grown by many but there is no enough value addition to mitigate post-harvest losses.

Overall, the banana sub-sector covers about 23 per cent of the entire cultivated land in Rwanda, estimated at 900,000 hectares.

Rwanda produced over 759,690 tonnes of cooking banana in 2018 from over 724,540 tonnes in 2017.

Cooking banana accounts for over 40 per cent of banana plantation in Rwanda while the rest is for beverages.

However, Studies show that post-harvest food losses are currently estimated to be between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of total food production depending on the type of products and the storage conditions.

Adding value to vegetables

To be part of problem solving, Rwabizankwaya did not only focus on adding value to bananas but also other fruits and vegetables.

"I dry vegetables such as amaranth so that they can be stored and eaten for the whole year without damaging. Such vegetables grow up during rainy season but become rare during dry season. This means drying techniques will help cope with food insecurity during the drought. I also learnt from Chinese experts how I can also process them into powder that can be used for different purposes,” he said.

He is also looking at spinach, sweet potatoes leaves and others.

The model farmer also dries lemon which can later be used in water and juice adding that the same lemon is produced into powder.

"I dry jackfruits, mangoes and papaya. I dry tomatoes and turn them into flour. I dry tamarillo and process into powder that is used to produce juice,” he explained.

He said that besides his existing skills, through the training he learnt how to dry and mangoes into flour, fish bones into edible products as post-harvest handling techniques.

"I learnt from Chinese experts that a mango can be produced into five different products,” he said.

The Rwanda- China partnership is focusing on processing and preserving different agricultural products including fruits and vegetables, cassava cultivation and processing, bananas, mushrooms, maize and rice, tea, coffee, milk and others.

Charles Bucagu, the Deputy Director-General of Agriculture Research and Technology Transfer at Rwanda Agricultural Development Board said that the acquired skills will help government reduce post-harvest losses.

Government seeks to reduce post-harvest losses from 16 per cent to less than 5 per cent by 2024.

He said that this is part of PSTA4, the seven year strategic plan for agricultural transformation designed to significantly increase farm productivity and promote value addition to food and leads Rwanda to middle-income country.

"We want to see the agricultural moving from subsistence to commercial agriculture sector; viable but also in most sustainable way. We want to increase productivity but also transformation and preservation of the products,” he said.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com