The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a US$35 million financing grant for the Rwanda Second Rural Sector Support Project (RSSP2). The grant will support the intensification of agricultural production systems and commercialisation of agricultural products. According to a statement from WB, the grant is the second in a series of three projects funded through a 16-year Adaptable Program Loan (APL).

RSSP2 is scheduled to run for four years and will, if successful, be followed by a third phase of similar magnitude and duration. RSSP2 aims at stimulating the rural economy and improving the quality of life of the rural poor through the transfer of technical and financial resources for sustainable rural development.

Some of the components include the expansion of irrigated areas in marshlands and increase the use of sustainable land management practices on hillsides in order to accelerate the pace of agricultural development.

It will also support the commercialisation of smallholder agriculture in targeted marshland and hillside areas by intensifying production, promoting agricultural value addition, and expanding access to markets.

It’s expected that by the end of the four-year project, 50 percent of farmers in marshland and hillside areas will have adopted sustainable marshland or hillside intensification technologies. It is also expected that at least 20 cooperatives being supported by RSSP2 will have increased their revenues from sales by 50 percent.

The program was launched in 2001 with a credit of US$48 million. The first phase of the APL (RSSP1) took seven years to complete.

By the end of RSSP2, it is expected that production of rice in marshlands rehabilitated or developed under the Project will have increased by 100 percent relative to the baseline. Significant increases in production of potatoes and maize are also expected in surrounding hillsides.

"Given the tremendous importance of agriculture in Rwanda’s economy, the country is unlikely to achieve its long-term development goals without dramatically increasing productivity in the rural economy,” said Michael Morris, a World Bank Lead Agricultural Economist and Task Team Leader for RSSP1.

"RSSP1 has succeeded in developing considerable capacity within MINAGRI to achieve sustainable intensification of marshlands and surrounding hillsides.

The momentum that has been generated under RSSP1 must continue, with increased attention paid to linking farmers to markets so that they can participate effectively in Rwanda’s more commercially-oriented agriculture of tomorrow,” said Loraine Ronchi, an Economist with the World Bank’s Agricultural and Rural Development Department, and Task Team Leader for the Project’s second phase.

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