Hadija Munganyinka, a farmer and a mother of three from Kayonza District recalls the difficult times she experienced without food after being affected by dry spells.

"I would tell my children to sleep, promising to get food for them the following day. However, there was no hope to get it because I didn’t get any harvest due to drought. From January up to now we didn’t get enough rain to grow our crops. If irrigation is scaled up, we could no longer face hunger,” she told Doing Business. 

Concorde Ngoga, 64-year-old in the Ndego sector also recalls the time his family got food aid from the government at the end of last year due to drought that devastated the district.

"Over 80 per cent of my harvest is lost due to drought,” he said.

Ngoga grows sorghum, cassava and beans on six hectares.

However, he said that he only got a good harvest in 2006.

"I came to the district in 1997. But the only good harvest was 84 sacks of sorghum on four hectares in 2006. I counted losses in all other years. I planted beans on six hectares this season but rains ceased earlier and the harvest will not be good as well,” he said.

Ngoga testifies that there has also been change in weather patterns from January to May, 2022.

"We didn’t get any rain in May. Other farmers who use irrigation are getting between four and eight tonnes of beans per hectare but for us the yields are very low due to lack of irrigation,” he said, adding that milk production has also drastically reduced.

Celestin Habarurema, said that he relocated to Rwamagana District after being affected by prolonged drought.

"I lived in the Ndego sector since 1999 and relocated in 2012 to the Rwamagana district. I have tillable land in this sector and we expect irrigation to save us from losses. Beans and other crops,” he said.

Habarurema said that he used to plant 100 kilograms of beans on between 1.5 hectares and two hectares

"With Rwf400 per Kilogramme of bean seeds, this implies a big loss.  When we get rains, I harvest over three tonnes of beans generating Rwf1.2 million income and this has been a loss in different seasons,” he said.

The losses farmers are facing are being triggered by climate change effects according to scientists who have said that the number of rainy days in Rwanda has declined by between 35 and 45 days per year due to climate change considering the period from 1971.

Due to global warming, trend analysis for the period 1971-2016 showed a temperature increase of 1.4°C has been recorded since 1970 causing unusual dry spells.

Rwanda’s average temperature is higher than the global average (1.09°C) shown by the UN-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

 The analysis by Rwanda Meteorology Agency focused on comparing the rainfall performance of the September to December last year and January to February, 2022 rainy seasons against their long-term mean based on the 1991-2022 long term mean using rainfall data for 131 weather stations.

In addition to the recent drought effects, the Eastern province also faced prolonged drought in 2016 affecting 47,000 households.

At the end of last year, over 36,000 households were also provided with food aid after being affected by dry spells.

About 50,000 households to benefit from Rwf80bn irrigation project

According to Geraldine Mukeshimana, the Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, there is a $80 million project that is expected to scale up irrigation in Kayonza District to build adaptation to drought effects.

"The project is being implemented in different phases. The project will help 50,000 households to irrigate and provide them with agro-forestry, agro-inputs among others,” she said.

The project aims to contribute to poverty reduction in the drought-prone eastern province in nine sectors of Kayonza district namely Gahini, Kabare, Kabarondo, Ruramira, Murama, Murundi, Mwiri, Ndego and Rwinkwavu.

Government targets to irrigate 102,284 hectares by 2024 from the 63,000 hectares which are currently under irrigation.

The country has to invest $2,261 million to expand irrigation and improve water management up to 2030.

It also plans to invest $285 million in using solar water pumping systems for irrigation within agricultural production to replace diesel pumps, displacing fossil fuel use and associated greenhouse gas emissions up to 2030.