The government of Rwanda yesterday received $ 3.3m (approx 1.8bn) worth of fertilizers from the Japanese government through a scheme called Grant Assistance for Underprivileged farmers.

The grant was received by Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Agnes Kalibata on behalf of Rwanda from Hiroshi Murakami, Resident representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Rwanda office on behalf of Japan.

The grant is generally intended to accelerate agriculture production in the country and will specifically boost the ministry’s crop intensification programme.   

Receiving the grant, Kalibata thanked the people of Japan and their government for the support. She also promised commitment in delivering the best of out put.

"Every time we count on your contribution, it is extremely important to us, we assure you that the people of Rwanda will take this opportunity to deliver the best,” said Kalibata.

However, she said that a lot of work still remains, revealing that the number farmers benefiting from the support is still low.

"Our support only reaches 25 per cent, there is still a big gap to fill, but with your support, the percentage will slightly increase, " Kalibata said.

Handing over the donation, Murakami hailed the country’s performance within the agriculture sector in year 2009.

"Statistics show that the food crops increased by 19 percent for season A of 2009 and 6.6 percent for the season B. These are really tangible results of your efforts to boost agriculture production and ensure food security in the country,” said Murakami.

The consignment is about 3,149 Metric tonnes of fertilizers (NPK 17-17-17) that follows last year’s 3,000 tonnes.

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