In an effort to promote agriculture and eliminate hunger between the two countries, Rwanda and Brazil, yesterday agreed to strengthen agriculture and food security.

The agreement follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) yesterday in Rome between the Agriculture Minister, Dr Agnes Kalibata, and Brazil´s Minister of External Relations, Antonio Patriota.

They were attending Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) summit.

 This is a follow up to the Brazil – Africa Dialogue on Food Security, Fight against Hunger and Rural Development, which took place on May 10th to 12th 2010 in Brasília in which under the leadership of AU and FAO, Brazil and African governments agreed to work together to fight hunger and promote Agriculture.  

The MoU will promote technical cooperation, capacity building and the transfer of knowledge, and competencies available in Brazilian institutions and organizations

The MoU recognizes South–South cooperation as a modality of cooperation for development with the greatest potential to promote economic growth, reduce inequality and improve standards of living in developing countries.

 Kalibata acknowledged that Rwanda recognizes that Brazil has overcome enormous challenges to provide food for the majority of its population. 

The Minister said that that the government of Rwanda was interested in learning from the Brazilian experience and in sharing Rwanda’s experience of getting small holder farmers out of poverty.

 She added that Rwanda also recognizes the enormous potential for information exchange, in research and innovation and the opportunities that the cooperation will create for the development of the private sector.

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