Are Agriculture officials sleeping on their jobs?

Editor, Refer to the story, “Local agro-products struggle to make it onto supermarket shelve” (The New Times, September 30). These issues have been discussed since National Agriculture Export Board (Naeb) inception in 2011. Four years down the road, the same issues are still gaping in our faces. This means eight crop seasons, and farmers cannot adopt good agricultural practices in horticulture commodity chains. How much training will Naeb conduct to improve quality of Rwandan horticultural products? Of what use was the plant audit training on global GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) conducted by SGS for Naeb field staff in July 2011? I do not believe Mr. Kabayiza’s explanation is valid. Horticulture standards are well known, commodity value chains can only be implemented by relevant ministerial institutions (in this case Naeb), and so we can conclude that Naeb has failed in its responsibilities. We are aware that Naeb has a director in charge of horticulture. What is his or her job description? Is he or she a graduate from a relevant tertiary institution? Apart from university degrees, Rwandans have studied and mastered the art of shifting blame. If Naeb staff were efficient, we would never have such scenarios where hardworking farmers get frustrated when their products are rejected by groceries and supermarkets. You will notice from different publications in Ministry of Agriculture that our farmers experience up to 40 per cent post-harvest losses, yet we can still afford to import apples from South Africa and semi-arid Israel. It does not make economic sense at all. We thank all at Naeb who have tried to work hard but some departments are simply lacking. I would like to share this wise quote from Steve Maraboli: “The victim mindset dilutes human potential. But not accepting responsibility for our own circumstances, we greatly reduce our power to change them”. James Munanura

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Are Agriculture officials sleeping on their jobs?