The Senate has resolved to make an in-depth analysis of issues in drying and storage facilities initiatives with aim to ensure proper handling of and value addition to agricultural produce.

The resolution was made on Thursday, February 10, 2022 during  a plenary sitting, held virtually.

The resolution was adopted by the committee on political affairs and Governance’s assessment of the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB)’s activity report for 2020/2021 fiscal year.

Poor post-harvest handling causes losses and can stimulate aflatoxin development on farm produce such as maize, especially during rainy seasons. Aflatoxin is a toxin (poison) produced by mold on poorly handled harvests that can damage the liver and may lead to liver cancer over long exposure (consumption of affected foods).

While presenting the Committee on Political Affairs and Governance’s assessment report, its Deputy Chairperson, Senator Hadidja Murangwa said that the Government’s Seven year Programme – known as the first phase of National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) – has a target to increase agricultural productivity.

She indicated that there are initiatives that were put in place in order to effectively handle farm produce, including drying and storage facilities.

However, she expressed concern that such initiatives do not adequately yield the expected results as indicated by the Citizen Report Card - CRC 2021 by RGB, whereby 64.1 percent of citizens expressed dissatisfaction with drying and storage services.

Senator Juvénal Nkusi said that some drying and storage facilities were built in distant sites from farmers, which makes it difficult for them to take their produce there as they have to travel a long distance.

"Some resort to constructing sub-standard shelters covered with tents and put their produce there because taking to the standard facilities is costly,” he said.  

Meanwhile, Senator Fulgence Nsengiyumva said that some people were poorly fermenting cassava for ‘ugali’ – a meal made from cassava flour – by soaking them into containers filled with dirty water, calling for technologies to ensure their proper handling.

Though there are facilities such as the Kinazi Cassava Plant which processes cassava into flour, Nsengiyumva said that there were not enough. He pointed out that this factory processes about 28,000 tonnes per year, which is a small fraction of the country’s cassava production estimated at about two million tonnes per year.

Senator Clotilde Mukakarangwa said that they once went to a major cassava producing area while visiting residents and the way they fermented cassava put me off eating ‘ugali’ because they were utilising overused and too dirty water.”

"There is a need to pay attention to that issue of unhygienic cassava handling, because, though diseases associated with it might not manifest immediately, ugali consumption might be a cause for illness for many in the long term,” she said.   

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources’ 2020/2021 report, Rwanda counts 1,453 drying infrastructures and 518 storages with a total capacity of 44,165 tonnes and 296,770 tonnes respectively.

In addition, the report showed that 10 mobile dryers and six Cob drying machines were purchased to contribute to reducing grain losses due the lack of drying means.

It indicated that the study conducted by PASP (Climate-Resilient Post-Harvest and Agribusiness Support Project) 2020, revealed that losses on key commodities significantly reduced from the study baseline of 2016 carried out by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Quoting the PASP 2020, said that maize post-harvest losses dropped from about 31 percent to 9 percent, those of Irish potato reduced from approximately 38 percent to 10 percent.

For cassava, it showed, post-harvest losses dropped from approximately 35 percent to 13 percent.