Considering that only 46 per cent of the farmers use good inputs including fertilizers, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is set to work with Rwanda on a new project to develop fertilizer recommendations adapted to the local crops and soil requirements for improvement of food production and soil health.
FAO says that the low adoption of fertilizers has been partly due to inappropriate fertilizer recommendations.
The quantity of fertilizers has increased to 46.4 Kg per hectare in 2019/2020.
Given that the country is 90 per cent hilly, with frequent soil erosion and decreasing fertility, efficient fertilizer application culture is necessary to maintain productivity, agricultural experts say.
Some farmers in the country are still using the blanket fertilizer recommendations, which mean that they overuse fertilizers, or underuse fertilizers causing imbalance of nutrients for the soil and crop.
"In some cases, this leads to farmers incurring a high cost of fertilizers,” FAO says.
Under the two-year project "Capacity Development on sustainable Soil Management for Africa – Rwanda”, FAO will support the country to improve fertilizer recommendations adapted to the local crops and soil requirements to improve food production.
Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) said that the project is timely considering that inefficient use of fertilizers has consequently caused nutrients loss.
"Most farmers do not vary fertilizer application rates according to the soil status and crops. This project will contribute to development of soil experimental data and laboratory to help farmers and stakeholders to make informed decisions, and will help to increase high adoption of fertilizers,” said Charles Bucagu, the Deputy Director-General of Agriculture Research and Technology Transfer at RAB.
Increasing food security for smallholder farmers
The FAO Representative in Rwanda, Gualbert Gbehounou, said that improving fertilizer recommendations for farmers is essential to increase food security for smallholder farmers.
"The expected impact of the project is to improve income, food security and nutrition, as well as improve environmental and human wellbeing through the sustainable management of soil resources in Rwanda,” said Gualbert.
The project will introduce efficient soil testing and fertilizer recommendations that have been successfully developed and implemented in the Chinese agricultural sectors.
In addition to assisting to build an efficient soil and fertilizer laboratory, the project will establish a set of soil fertility and fertilizer database, establish a regional system on scientific fertilization extension service, and develop capacities of the stakeholders through an online soil education platform (EduSOILS).
It is financially funded by China through the South-South and Triangular Cooperation framework aimed to share from the South to developing countries development solutions that have been tested and proven effective.
"South-South and Triangular Cooperation can support southern countries by sharing technologies, expertise, experiences through technical demonstration and capacity development. We committed to do our best to facilitate smooth implementation of this project through cooperation with stockholders in Rwanda,” said Jinbiao Wang, FAO Senior Programme Officer of South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division.
Jiaxin Wang, Economic and Commercial counselor of Chinese Embassy to Rwanda said that soil erosion could lead to soil infertility adding the technology transfer is helpful.
"This makes soils and agriculture systems with poor productivity and endangers our food security, then negatively impacts the development of the country. Capacity building on soils could significantly improve the sustainable soil management as well as agriculture in the country,” said Wang.
The results of this project could also be used to help the country to improve fertilizer supply chain, to promote the local fertilizer market, officials said.
An increase in productivity, without impairing soil health, could contribute to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security.