A new five-year scheme called Rwanda Agricultural Biotechnology Program (Cassava, Maize, Potato – CMP), is expected to contribute to improvement in crop productivity, according to its developers. The $10 million programme (about Rwf13 billion) runs from October 2024 to October 2029.

It was launched on Friday, October 11 by the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) and African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) as lead programme implementers.

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The investment, they observed, will allow Rwandan farmers the opportunity to access and plant high-yielding crops and cushion them from losses due to the existing pests and diseases, hence improving crop productivity, which is the goal of the new programme.

The Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ildephonse Musafiri, said Rwanda is confronted with the same challenges that afflict its neighbouring countries, including the escalating prevalence of the fall armyworm disease and drought affecting maize, brown streak disease in cassava, and late blight in potatoes.

The Government of Rwanda, Musafiri said, remains committed to the adoption of innovative technologies, including biotechnology and the establishment of the necessary institutional framework. This commitment is underscored by the enactment of the Biosafety Act and the supporting legislative instruments, such as application forms, he added.

The Biosafety Act of February 2024 seeks to ensure that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) – also called living modified organisms (LMOs) are handled, transferred, and used safely in Rwanda.

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"This investment will enable Rwandan farmers to access and plant high-yielding crops, thereby saving the yields lost to pests and diseases," the Minister said.

"This aligns with the Rwandan government's commitment to achieving improvements in yields, profits, and resilience in the face of climate change and other challenges,” he said, observing that the launch of this programme will position Rwanda as a member of the AgBiotech community.

Programme funding

According to information from RAB, Rwanda has worked together with other partners in cassava, maize and potato biotechnology for a number of years to address production challenges in these crops.

The partners have received funding to the tune of more than $9.8 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This funding capitalises on earlier investments to develop improved cassava, maize, and potato – which have created products that are ready for introduction and use by farmers, programme, indicated the programme designers.

Target crops

The programme targets to introduce three crops for testing and cultivation.

The first is a virus-resistant cassava engineered for resistance to Cassava Brown Streak Disease, a devastating viral disease that causes a reduction in the yield and quality of cassava tubers.

The second is a late blight resistant potato engineered for resistance to late blight, a fungal-like disease that depresses yields and generates dependence on chemical sprays as farmers try to get yields.

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The third is a drought-tolerant, stem borer and fall-armyworm-resistant maize engineered to protect farmers’ harvests from attacks by these pests.

Why cassava, maize and potato?

Cassava is one of the most widely grown staple food crops in Rwanda, grown by almost 700,000 households and providing essential calories in rural diets, according to data from RAB.

While cassava is drought-tolerant, it is susceptible to viral diseases that reduce its yield, the most devastating of them being Cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), so far.

Scientists at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (DDPSC) together with those from the national agricultural research organisation in Rwanda with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have been working to genetically modify locally adapted cassava varieties to make them nearly immune to this disease.

This new project will help accelerate this work towards introduction for cultivation, officials said.

It will also enhance the technical and scientific capacity of staff at RAB, support the construction of required infrastructure to make them biosafety level compliant and develop a robust and sustainable local cassava seed system.

For potato, it is one of Rwanda’s eight priority crops. It grown on 5 per cent of the country’s cultivated land and represents 10 per cent of national food production. Its production, however, is curtailed by late blight, a disease which can reduce yields by 13 to 60 per cent, depending on the season.

Farmers deploy chemical sprays to reduce the devastation caused by the disease, but these are expensive, partially effective, and often pose dangers to the environment and human health.

To address this problem, scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) and the International Potato Center (CIP) have genetically modified potatoes to incorporate three genes that are resistant to late blight.

These genes, derived from wild relatives of potato, have been inserted into five potato varieties currently grown in Africa, including two grown in Rwanda, known as Shangi (Ndamira) and Victoria.

Investment under this new project will support the establishment of confined field trials that will provide appropriate data on the first events of the potato varieties with three late blight resistance genes so that they can be approved by regulatory authorities for food and environmental safety in Rwanda, the programme designers said.

Alongside this will be support towards the establishment and strengthening of in-country seed systems for potatoes which will be critical for farmers’ adoption of the varieties, they pointed out.

For maize, another priority crop grown on 280,000 hectares annually, with a national average yield of 1.6 tonnes per hectare. This yield level is well below the potential, with Rwanda consequently spending over $23 million to import 100,000 tonnes of maize grain annually.

There are several reasons for Rwanda’s modest maize yields, key of which is frequent insect attacks, particularly those of the Fall Armyworm, a relatively new caterpillar pest in Africa that is causing significant harm to maize production.

The pest causes extensive damage to maize production triggering intensive use of prohibited pest control products that are a significant public health and environmental concern in the country.

To address the climatic and pest problems affecting maize in Africa, AATF implements the TELA project that uses biotechnology to insert genes into African varieties of maize to increase their drought-tolerance and insect resistance, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID.

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The implementing partners of the TELA project include national agricultural research centres in Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa.

The new maize hybrid varieties developed have been field-tested under moderate drought and insect-pests infestation in each of these countries and shown impressive results – about a 40 per cent yield increase compared to equivalent hybrid varieties that do not include the genes conferring drought-tolerance and insect resistance, as per information from AATF.

Rwanda was not one of the original partner countries in this project as it lacked the necessary biosafety law until late 2023. This investment will enable Rwanda to join the project to develop, deregulate, and deploy these improved maize hybrids for use by its farmers, observed the programme developers.