The country director for Oxfam GB, Alice Uwase, has urged policy makers to find ways of subsidising the cost of fuel for farmers.
Speaking at the Market Value Chain workshop held in La Palisse Nyandungu on Wednesday, Uwase said that the increase in fuel prices has contributed to poor performance of the agricultural sector and should be addressed.

"If fuel costs were moderated to boost agriculture, farming and production costs would go down, the outputs would be cheaper ensuring more sales. This would guarantee a boom in the country’s agriculture sector.”

Farmers’ major operational costs include transportation and running of machinery and these require large consumption of fuel. 

"We need to explore the possibility of alleviating fuel costs from framers so as to encourage more production,” Uwase said.

She added that forging networks between all agricultural holders would also in effect encourage better policies and support for sustainable production in the industry.

The workshop was organised to provide an opportunity for the agricultural sector players to explore the potential of production of pineapples and mushrooms for both local consumption and foreign markets.

"As an effort to alleviate poverty, we are introducing production of pineapples and mushrooms that can be sold in and out of the country,” said Uwase.

During the same event Match Maker Associates (MMA), a consultancy firm researching on the potential to produce mushrooms and pineapples, released its draft report.

MMA, consultant Edmond Ringo noted that Rwanda has an enabling environment for horticultural produce and linkage of all key players would provide for sustainable growth in the industry.

"Although horticulture productivity in the country has been steadily rising over time, the sub-sectors within it still remain limited by lack of proper key players’ partnerships.” Ringo said. "Efforts to interlink the farmers, market players and consumers will significantly improve the whole industry by identifying best practices for maximum profits” .

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