WESTERN PROVINCE

RUBAVU  —  Grouping farmers in cooperatives is one of the viable foundations of agricultural development, Rubavu district officer in charge of good governance, Martin Habimana has said.

Addressing residents of Nyakanama recently, Habimana said farmers in cooperatives had benefited a lot and doubled their production due to use of joint efforts in their activities.

He condemned residents who still perceive farming as an activity for the poor and uneducated people. He observed that farmers could reap many benefits from farming.

"In developed countries, farming is a profession that has provided wealth to people due to its modernized state. We should therefore transform from subsistence to commercial farming, but this can only be possible through joint efforts in cooperative unions,” he said.

Jean-Damascène Nkurikiyinka, the presidents of Kanama farmer’s Cooperative Union said farmers have gained much through working in cooperatives. The cooperative was created 2001 to help farmers increase their yields through increasing access to fertilizers.

"We started this saving cooperative union which gives small loans and other agricultural fertilizers to farmers after realizing that most farmers had no access to big banks. Various people including business men and government workers went to these banks limiting low income farmers to access the loans through these big banks,” he said, stressing that the cooperative was formed to provide loans, seeds, and fertilizers to the low income farmers.

He described cooperative unions as autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural goals and aspirations through; a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled system.

"We have benefited a lot from this cooperative; it has provided us financial support through loans which we have used to pay workers in the process of expanding our gardens. We have also got loans in form of fertilizers which has greatly increased our production,” explained Claudine Uwimana, a member of the cooperative union.

She noted that before the creation of the union, agricultural productivity was very low in Kanama sector but now farmers can produce enough food for their households and a surplus for the market. 

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