The construction of a previously stalled $12.2 million centre of excellence for agriculture mechanisation project is being revived, according to the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), and it could be completed by end this year.

Plans to set up the centre which aims to promote research and boost local production of agriculture machinery started in May 2017 in Kanombe Sector, in Kicukiro District.

However, work was suspended after the contractor, Technofab Engineering Ltd, faced financial challenges and was not able to execute the contract. The project initially had a 12 months completion timeline, implying it was to be complete before the year 2018 ended.

A view of the stalled agriculture mechanisation facility whose construction was supposed to be complete  before end 2018. Photo: Craish Bahizi.

Lately, according to Charles Bucagu, the Deputy Director of Agriculture Research and Technology Transfer at RAB, there is hope that the centre will be completed before long.

While completion deadline was extended to June this year, it has again been extended to December this year.

"The progress is at 66 per cent and completion is expected by December 2022,” Bucagu told Doing Business.

Mechanised agriculture is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanise the work of agriculture, greatly increasing farm worker productivity.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security, mechanisation is a crucial input for agricultural crop production and one that historically has been neglected in the context of developing countries.

The UN agency notes that factors that reduce the availability of farm power compromise the ability to cultivate sufficient land and have long been recognised as a source of poverty, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

As noted, increasing the power supply to agriculture means that more tasks can be completed at the right time and greater areas can be farmed to produce greater quantities of crops while conserving natural resources. Applying new technologies that are environmentally friendly enables farmers to produce crops more efficiently by using less power.

Rwanda’s first ever centre of excellence for agriculture mechanisation is expected to benefit local and regional researchers as well as bolster technology transfer in the use of powered farm machinery in different farming activities or operations.

"The services expected from the centre include research and development in farm mechanisation, technology transfer such as training and demonstration of new technologies to farmers and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector and creating opportunities to link up small, medium and big scale industries in order to promote agriculture mechanisation,” Bucagu said.

The centre will support manufacturers to locally produce farm machinery and technologies appropriate for Rwanda’s soil and topography and get the capacity to maintain and repair equipment, produce spare parts for tilling tractors. It will also intensify the much needed mass training of agricultural mechanisation operations.

The centre will also monitor certification of mechanisation equipment; both those imported and those locally produced to ensure use of appropriate machines. It will also look conduct research on machinery working along the whole value chain from land preparation to post-harvest handling.

Once it is complete, many small-scale agro-processing industries will benefit. Farmers will be trained on agriculture mechanisation.

The centre will also work with universities interested in research related to farm mechanisation.

It will work with institutions like institutions of higher learning and Integrated Polytechnic Regional Colleges (IPRCs) that can design models for mechanisation equipment. The centre will also increase the quality of agricultural professionals and operators of tilling tractors.

Farmers speak

Besides the issue of machinery that can ease farming activities on hillsides, Claver Sebahire, a farmer in Gakenke District, told Doing Business that most Rwandan farmers are smallholders – largely family-owned enterprises rearing livestock, cultivating crops on less than three or five hectares of land – and can’t afford leasing tilling tractors.

"Therefore, the centre should be innovative and produce affordable small tilling machines. If agriculture is mechanised, it can attract many people including youth in modernised agriculture to make profit,” Sebahire said.

Jeanne d’Arc Uwemeyimana, an oranges and sweet potato farmer who operates on three hectares in Mukarange Sector, Kayonza District, said there are areas where existing tractors cannot till properly.

"The centre of excellence should produce machines that are suitable for different farms across the country. The smallholder farmers have not been affording the cost of tilling machines and if produced locally the cost might decrease,” she said.

"With mechanised agriculture operations, women could also find it easy to invest in agribusiness.”

Whenever an agricultural season starts, farmers told Doing Business, even farmers who are able and want to lease equipment such as tractors cannot get them on time due to the persistent tractor shortage caused by "high demand when the season starts.”

According to Bucagu, the government targets to achieve 50 per cent of agricultural operations mechanised by 2024.

Bucagu said: "We are currently estimating 32.7 percent of agricultural operations being mechanised. We are encouraging those who have acquired machinery to support in service delivery to the community.

"This is the case of owners of mobile dryers, and tractors who offer services to producers and pay the service, and government supporting with subsidies (in case of tractor services).”

Engaging private sector

Bucagu said that the government is supporting the private sector to access finance so to acquire machinery. This, he said, can be done through grants under Business Development Fund (BDF), among others.

"For instance, 26 tractors were acquired by the private sector in 2021/2022 through Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Food security Project (SAIP) grant,” he said.

 SAIP is the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) funded project through the World Bank Group– International Development Association (IDA).

 The project is implemented under the Single Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) of RAB. Its objective is to increase agricultural productivity, market access, and food security in eight districts namely Rulindo, Rwamagana, Karongi, Rutsiro, Kayonza, Nyanza, Gatsibo, and Nyabihu.

However, RAB says the project implementation will expand to other areas during implementation as deemed necessary by the government and in agreement with the World Bank.

Nineteen power tiller machines were acquired by the private sector in the financial year 2021/2022 through the SAIP grant.

Power tillers can be used on smallholder farmers’ land plots with terraces by using hands since they are not heavy.

Figures show that more than 60 per cent of the smallholder farmers in Rwanda have less than half a hectare most of which is hilly land therefore need affordable mechanisation technologies such as power tillers.