Gakenke farmers tipped on food security

Farmers should embrace modern farming to ensure sustainable food security. Tony Nsanganira , the state minister of ministry of agriculture and animal resources said on Thursday at the national event held in Gakenke District to cerebrate the World Food Day, under the theme ‘Social protection and agriculture: Breaking the cycle of rural poverty’. The minister said that agriculture contributes over 50 per cent towards poverty reduction in rural areas, which is why government puts it among key priorities. “Farmers should embrace modern farming systems and make sure that we achieve sustainable food security to fight malnutrition among children and adults,” he said. Nsanganira urged famers to work hard under their respective cooperatives to increase production and meet the market demands. Attaher Maiga, the country representative of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that cerebrating World Food Day will help Rwanda deal with food security issues as well as lift people out of poverty. “We are here to reflect on food security issues, what we need to do individually or collectively is to see how to reduce chronic food insecurity and poverty through direct access to food or means to buy food to ensure food insecurity and hunger are stamped out. Food should be available to all of us so that we become a hunger zero generation by 2030,” Maiga said. Pocien Rwaraho, a visually impaired man was one of the ten people who during the celebrations, received a cow from the Ministry of Agriculture through the Gir’inka programme. Despite tremendous progress in agriculture some farmers still face market problems in connection with the price of their produce. Scholastic Nirere, the president of Duhaguruke Mataba Cooperative dealing in pineapple growing said that there is no minimum price for pineapples and this affects their earning. “Members of the cooperative have adopted land use consolidation policy and we harvest 5,000 pineapples per week but we do not get a good price for our products as we are given Rwf300 per piece which is insufficient given the input. We call upon concerned authorities to set a minimum price that takes into account what we invest,” Nirere said. The 2015 World Food Day comes on the heels of the UN Global Development Summit held in New York in September where 193 countries agreed on a new global agenda for sustainable development and committed to eradicate hunger by 2030. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Gakenke farmers tipped on food security