François Hakuzimana, a farmer from Rubavu district is an owner of a ranch where he rears poultry and grows bananas, beans and Irish potatoes.

Before the pandemic hit, he used to make money selling off his produce to markets in Kigali and in his district too. He also had deals where he would export chicken and eggs, with Democratic Republic of the Congo being his biggest market.

When the pandemic hit however, borders were closed and traveling with in and out of the country became restricted, which he says hindered transport of merchandise and consumption was affected consequently. 

As smallholder farmers, Hakuzimana says they are faced with countless challenges such as limited market, wastage of produce and limited access to sources of agricultural productivity.

A reflection round the current state of most sectors, farming inclusive, shows that these are still unprecedented times with the pandemic continuing to disrupt a big number of undertakings.

Jean-Paul Munyakazi, the Legal Representative of Imbaraga Farmers’ organisation says where as there are still opportunities since the sector continued working during the pandemic, farmers are still affected.

"Some farmers were forced to sell their produce before harvest time, this is always done at a low price, which limits their profit,” he says.

He also adds that transportation of harvest to markets has been another hindrance, noting however the recent lockdown didn’t affect farmers that much since it happened when farmers were mostly done with sowing.

"The biggest problem present is farmers haven’t managed to organise themselves in terms of making good use of their harvest.”

"The other challenge, though it’s not directly linked to the pandemic, is that faced by dairy farmers. Milk supply has been in excess, normally this happens in the month of March and April but this time it happened in January because that’s when it rained. In some areas, factories didn’t buy milk from farmers as they usually do, this caused a big loss,” Munyakazi explains. 

According to Eric Mbonigaba, the Director of Rwanda Chamber of Agriculture and Livestock at Private Sector Federation, because most of buyers of farmers’ produce (hotels and restaurants) were closed, it was inevitable for farmers to be faced with a limited market.

He also points out a lack of adequate infrastructure for conservation and storage of production for a long time especially for perishable products (fruits and vegetables) as well as livestock products (cow meat, chicken meat and pork meat).

Making agriculture viable

Munyakazi points out however that, whereas the agricultural sector was affected by the pandemic, opportunities rose that even those who were not in the sector joined.

"People saw opportunities in this sector, they realised that they can invest in it and get profit.”

According to a new report - the Africa Agribusiness Outlook, there is need to make agriculture attractive, viable and profitable rather than being looked at as a risky endeavour.

It indicates that the future of African agribusiness must include the smallholder farmer. The report found that agribusinesses are incorporating more smallholder farmers into their business models. This is critical to sustainability.

And on the other hand, optimising local value chains can help mitigate the devastating effects of the pandemic on the economy. For this to happen, there is need for innovative financing solutions to support the agribusiness sector. Financing, specific to the agricultural sector, will help build resilience and enable them to seize the moment.

To address the present challenges, Munyakazi says they are approaching each district encouraging farmers to organise themselves in terms of operations mainly.

"Only through the Economic Recovery Fund established by Government can we mitigate those challenges as actors can get money through their commercial banks to recover their economy,” Mbonigaba says.