After government merged OCIR The, OCIR café and Rwanda Horticulture Development Authority (RHODA) to form the National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB), Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) embarked on strategies to build the board`s capacity.

Among other measures being taken, RBS for the first time ever involved NAEB staff in training exercises on international standards specifically on the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO).

The strategy that aims at skills development to ensure quality production of agricultural products drew participants from across the country, with the task of providing further education to farmers.

According to the Head of Industry Inspection at RBS, Shukur Bizimungu, the training that focused on the Global Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) aimed at equipping trainees with skills in Food Safety Management Systems.

"We are to deal or set measures that will enable our products suite international standards right from the producer or farmer to the exporter,” Bizimungu says.

He explains that the exercise exposes farmers to best agriculture practices that will enable qualitative and mass agro production for both export and home consumption.

Among other measures to be taken by NAEB in promoting farmers as well as creating safe measures towards quality production is putting-up storage facilities.

NAEB officials say the facilities will reduce transportation costs as well as storage risks especially for those in horticulture farming in all districts across the country.

The officer in charge of monitoring and evaluation at NAEB, James Munanura, says that identification of areas where storage facilities will be located is almost complete; tenders are to be awarded so that construction starts.

"We have already set our target to see that these facilities should be operating by September,” Munanura says. He explains that farmers will be free to store their products as well as getting information about agriculture.

Farmers who spoke to The Sunday Times especially those in cooperatives appreciated the move saying it is timely.

Some farmers say that although they have made efforts to have private storage facilities, they need support in having enough and well-organized storage systems.

"For every farmer, it is his responsibility to ensure that his products are kept safely. But we do not have the capacity to store our products based on our yield,” says  Athanase Rwabizankwaya, the chairman of Kamara Cooperative Society, a farmer’s cooperative in Gatore Sector, Kirehe District.

Rwabizankwaya explains that currently, the cooperative made up of 1,060 farmer’s harvests a total of 10 tonnes of green bananas and two tonnes of apple bananas every two weeks among other products.

"With such production, it is important to have a central store or storage facility that will help us in maintaining our products at the same quality level,” he explains.

He adds that putting up storage facilities will not only help farmers to improve on the quality of their products, but will also increase on their productivity.

Rwabizankwaya notes that lack of these facilities had kept some farmers reluctant since they knew producing what they could not store was a double loss.    

Like any other farmer or cooperatives in agro-business faced with similar challenges, NAEA says more effort will be directed towards improving their profitability through creating measures to reduce the cost of production.

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