The use of quality seeds stands at 37.1 per cent among Rwandan farmers, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ildephonse Musafiri, has said, calling for more collaboration between the Government and the private sector to scale up adoption rate for higher farm output.

He was speaking on July 31, during the first National Seed Congress, which brings together actors in the country’s seed sector. The two-day event is taking place in Kigali from July 31 to August 1.

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Organised under the theme &039;Private Sector's Strategic Roadmap for Rwanda Seed Industry 2030', the meeting aims to review relevant strategic goals in the country’s seed sector, facilitate mutual accountability, and identify synergies, linkages, and complementarities on the achievement of the main goals about the private sector’s strategic roadmap for seed industry from now up to 2030.

"Quality seed, being a crucial input in agriculture, holds immense significance for our farming community. However, one of the significant challenges we still face is the underutilisation of quality seeds by our farmers,” Musafiri said.

"There are encouraging adoption rates of improved seed use among Large Scale farmers, reaching as high as 85.7 per cent. Yet, the adoption rate drops significantly to 35.9per cent among our small scale farmers, resulting in an overall utilisation rate of 37.1 per cent,” he remarked.

This discrepancy, the Minister said, highlights the pressing issue of affordability, especially concerning imported seed varieties.

"It also emphasises the urgent need to strengthen our extension services, providing valuable support and guidance to our farmers in order to reach 100 per cent improved seed utilisation rate,” he observed.

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The Director General of Agriculture Modernisation at the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Patrick Karangwa, said that for the large-scale farmers who have two hectares of land and above, the adoption is high – at 85 per cent – but pointed out that a lower rate is observed among many small-scale farmers who carry out farming on less than a half of a hectare of farmland.

Rwanda, Karangwa said, has about 1.4 million hectares under farming, but with a land holding per household of around 0.4 hectare –less than a half of a hectare.

The Representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Coumba Dieng Sow, said that globally, agri-food systems are facing extraordinary challenges due to diminishing natural resources, environmental degradation, pollution and the impact of the climate crisis. She underscored the importance of quality seeds in food production and achieving food security.

"Production is at the heart of our mission at FAO, where the first strategic objective is better production. And better production starts with better seeds. There are no good crops without good seeds. Seeds carry the desired genetic traits and characteristics of high yields, disease resistance, drought resistance. On average, the adoption of an improved crop variety could account for about 50 per cent increase in yield,” she said.

Progress in seed production in Rwanda

Meanwhile, Minister Musafiri said that on a positive note, the availability of different seed varieties in Rwanda is noteworthy, with substantial quantities of maize (more than 6,815 tonnes), wheat (445 tonnes), soybean (321 tonnes), beans (216 tonnes), and potato (28,000 tonnes), along with cassava cuttings (more than 63.8 million) - per a farming season.

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According to Karangwa, seed development is one of Rwanda’s key priorities for the development of the country.

He said that after the Government of Rwanda took a decision in 2018 to have self-sufficiency in seed production of three staple crop seeds – maize, wheat and soybeans – within three years (until 2021), the country locally produces seeds that far exceeds the amount it used to import.

"Rwanda used to import around 3,000 tonnes of seeds, maize, wheat, and soybean [per year], but the country now produces almost 9,000 tonnes, or three times than what we used to import,” Karangwa said, pointing out that the country used to spend around Rwf5 billion on importing the seeds in question annually.