Jean Baptiste Niringiyimana was shocked by the Rwanda Agriculture Board’s (RAB) decision to terminate contracts it had with farmers’ cooperatives to buy their bumper produce. Niringiyimana, a resident of Gakenke District and president of Twirwaneho Mutara Cooperative which deals with seeds multiplication and modern farming, said tonnes of maize were sold at a giveaway price as they were getting spoilt due to lack of market. Initially, farmers were mobilised to adopt modern fertilisers and fortified seeds to boost production and the whole of produce would be sold to RAB, according to farmers. RAB officials would monitor the process from planting to harvest to ensure it meets the body’s requirements. But farmers said their hopes were dashed in July when RAB told them they could not buy the produce and told them to look for markets elsewhere. “We had RAB as our main client. We had nowhere else to sell the produce as we had been working with RAB for the past seasons. We used to sign contracts in either February or March each year and we agreed on how to sell the produce,” said Niringiyimana. In Gakenke District, over 5,000 farmers practice modern farming, especially in seeds multiplication. They said RAB used to buy their maize at Rwf400 per kilo but are currently selling it at Rwf190. Celestin Munyembanza, the president of Twizamure Cyuve cooperative, said lack of appropriate markets made them count losses. “We used to sell our produce to RAB and we could register profit from it. However, we are selling the produce to businesses around and they pay us less money than what we invested,” said Munyembanza. He says that this season, they sold maize at between Rwf120 and Rwf160, while RAB used to buy it at between Rwf300 and Rwf350 per kilo. According to Dr Telesphore Ndabamenye, head of crop production & food security department at RAB, they could not buy the produce last season as they had a surplus in the stores which will be used as seeds for the next two seasons. He said the farmers were advised to sell their produce to other clients and that RAB would help them in getting markets. “We are also looking at ways to plan better so that farmers are informed about the quantity of seeds needed per year,” he said. Ndabamenye said this would start with season 2017B. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
