UN Resident Coordinator, Fode Ndiaye has said that he is proud that in Rwanda, the Government gave priority to hunger eradication in many ways, providing success stories that inspire other African countries.
He was speaking during the celebration of World Food Day in Rwanda on Friday, October 29, 2021 in Rulindo District.
Among others, he said, the Government of Rwanda has promoted innovative approaches to food security and hunger eradication such as sustainable agriculture intensification and food security projects.
He cited One Cow per Poor Family [Girinka] programme, kitchen garden programme, One Cup of Milk per Child, and scaling up of the national school feeding programme with aim to ensure all students get meals at school.
Farmers exhibited vegetables among other food stuffs as Rwanda and its partners celebrated World Food Day on October 29, 2021 in Rulindo District (Photo_ SPIU, MINAGRI)
"The UN family is very proud to support the Government of Rwanda on this initiative and to help all people have access to sufficient, affordable, safe and nutritious food to lead an active and healthy life," he said.
Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze, Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources said that Rwanda’s efforts have resulted in improving food security for its residents.
The Rwanda comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis of December 2018, showed that 81.3 per cent of its households is food secure which means they have access to enough and nutritious food – representing good progress from 65.4 percent in 2006.
It indicated that 18.7 per cent of the country’s households - approximately 467,000 households – were found to be food insecure.
"We still have a journey to make to ensure that even the remaining the percentage of the population who remain food insecure, enjoy food security, and we are committed to that as it’s our core responsibility,” he observed.
Farmers have also testified that the efforts the country invested in agriculture – with support of its partners such as FAO – have started yielding results, which also contributed to improved nutrition status.
Some of the food items exhibited by farmers during the celebration of the World Food Day on October 29, 2021in Rulindo District, Northern Province (Photo_ SPIU, MINAGRI)
"I used to get 70 kilogrammes of [Irish] potatoes as produce on one Are (farm area equal to 100 square metres). But, my produce quadrupled to 280 kilogrammes on the same area thanks to implementing the good farming skills I received,” said Therese Nzamwitakuze, a farmer from Rulindo District as she gave an example of developments in agriculture.
Sustainable food production
This year’s World Food Day is celebrated under theme: "Our actions are our future- better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life”.
Ndiaye said that this year’s theme is aligned to the recommendation of the Global FoodSystem Summit convened by the UN Secretary-General in September, 2021, which launched bold new actions for healthier and more sustainable food systems to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal [of ending hunger] by 2030.
"There is much to do to achieve that before 2030… More than three billion people – almost 40 percent of the World’ population – still don’t have access to healthy diets,” he said, adding that obesity is on the rise in all regions.
Globally, he said, people are dependent on healthy ecosystems for a long term supply of enough and nutritious food. But, food production is degrading or even destroying natural habitats, which he said, threatens sustainable food supply and environmental protection.
"We need to feed an ever-growing world population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050 [from over seven billion currently]. Therefore, we must build long-term resilience and change how we produce and consume food,” he said.
"We must take action now for better production, better nutrition, and better environment, to create better lives through sustainable [food] systems,” he said.
Given that the global and the county’s population keeps increasing, yet its limited land remains the same, Ngabitsinze said that there was a need to exponentially increase food production in order to meet the rising food needs as a result.
However, he said that food production systems should be sustainable for the available natural resources to benefit even the future generations.
"For us to be able to positively correlate the increasing population and food production, we should make greater efforts to ensure food production growth is well higher than the population growth,” he said, indicating that this requires concerted efforts and cooperation.