Agriculture sector output is expected to increase by 4 percent this year up from 2 percent growth registered in 2022, officials have said.

The development was announced Wednesday, May 3, by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Uzziel Ndagijimana, while presenting to both chambers of Parliament the Budget Framework Paper and medium term budget estimates for the next fiscal year.

Minister Ndagijimana told parliamentarians that the government plans to spend Rwf5 trillion, an increase of Rwf265.3 billion — or 6 per cent —compared to the Rwf4.7 trillion of the revised national budget for the current fiscal year.

Despite the agriculture sector’s contribution to Rwanda’s economy has declining in recent years, Ndagijimana pointed out that the government has mapped out several interventions to ensure that the projected targets are realized.

"Some of the interventions include investing more effort in the use of fertilizers and their subsidies but also producing fertilizers locally which in turn cuts down the high prices of imported fertilizers.”

Others, Ndagijimana added, enable farmers to have easy access to credit and insurance as well as increasing farm productivity.

Equally important is investing more efforts in irrigation and construction of terraces that will enable the sector to remain resilient to climate shocks among other challenges.

Minister Ndagijimana explained that inflation rose by 21.6 percent by December last year, compared to the same period in 2021.

This, he pointed out, was largely due to the agriculture sector's poor performance as well as disruptions in the global value chains owing to the Ukraine-Russia crisis.

According to Ndagijimana, inflation is expected to remain relatively high at 7.8 percent in 2023, before decreasing to 5 percent in 2024.