Agriculture:Empowering farmers with access to improved seeds The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (Minagri) and the Belgian Development Agency (BTC), last Friday, jointly launched an initiative dubbed, the ‘Market Oriented Advisory Services and Quality Seeds Programme’.The five-year scheme, launched in Nyamata sector, Bugesera District, seeks to support the second phase of the national Strategic Programme for Agriculture Sector Transformation (SPAT).As part of the implementation of SPAT, the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), at the same event, also unveiled the Rwanda Seed and Farmer Field School Initiative.The Rwanda seed and Farmer Field school project has a holistic approach to the seed sector where it facilitates the process of putting in place a firm foundation for a professional seed sector through the development of a strong public and private sector and enabling farmers to  have easy access to quality seeds countrywide.Through the Farmer Field School Methodology (FFS), farmers undergo season-long training on improved farming practices and acquire knowledge to identify problems and contribute to the solutions.Ernest Ruzindaza, the Permanent Secretary, Minagri, said FFS will help empower farmers in making informed decisions about agricultural production and in acquiring post-harvest, marketing and sales skills to sell their produce at the best prices."Rwanda set a target of becoming at least a middle income country by 2017, but this requires our agriculture sector to have at least 8.5 percent growth every year. It is in this regard that we have launched the Market Oriented Advisory Services and Quality Seeds Programme as one of the strategies that will help our government achieve that target”.He praised the farmers for their tremendous contribution to the transformation of the agriculture sector but asked them to always work harder and endeavour to learn new agriculture techniques, which, he said, would enable them to increase their production.BTC has so far contributed 18 million Euros (about Rwf14.5 billion) towards various l programmes in the area of agriculture in the country.In his remarks, the Ambassador of Belgium to Rwanda, Marc Pecsteen, noted that food security remains a real challenge for the world today, pointing out that statistics indicate that one out of seven people are undernourished, in the world today, and in that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio increases to one out of four people. He said there was need for high-level responsibility and action against such challenges."I appreciate the farmers for their interest and willingness to share knowledge and skills concerning agriculture transformation; we can clearly see that farmers own the process. This shows that there is total confidence in the future of the agriculture sector in Rwanda because the main stakeholders are fully involved in the development of the sector,” Pecsteen said.He noted that Belgium is proud to be a close partner of the Rwandan government in the socio-economic transformation process, adding that Brussels is committed in continuing to support Rwanda in various development activities. Speaking to The New Times shortly after the function, Seleverien Dusabemungu, a farmer in Mwogo sector, Bugesera District, said: "I thank the government for training us as farmers in different areas because this totally changed our lives; for example, I used to live together with my family in a small house of about 10 iron sheets, but now I stay in a big house of 50 iron sheets”.He asked his fellow farmers to adhere to the advice given by Minagri and other stakeholders, saying it would transform their lives.Another resident, Jeannette Mukamana, from Juru sector, said that before using green fertilizers in her banana plantation, she used to harvest bananas of about 20 to 35 kilograms each, but now she harvests bananas between 70 to 130 kilograms each.She noted that now a farmer in Bugesera District sells a banana of about 100 kilograms at Rwf8, 000, saying that had changed the living standards of families.Meanwhile, a group of 100 farmers from nine districts in the country who completed a three-month-training in agricultural techniques are attending a refresher course in Bugesera District on proper management of crops which include cassava, banana, maize and potatoesAccording to Minagri, more than 40,000 farmers and 700 facilitators have been trained through farmer field schools on priority crops across the country.In May, last year, Rwanda and Belgium signed a cooperation programme, under which the latter committed to providing 160 million Euros in the coming four years, which will go into health, energy and decentralization.