If you have roots in Ruhango, the district is looking for you to tap into the available investment opportunities. A consultative meeting to discuss the best way forward was held over the weekend, drawing participants from private sector and diaspora as well as opinion leaders from the district. The district has 77,000 households, comprising 320,000 people with the farming of rice and cassava being the main source of livelihood. Epimaque Twagirimana, the district vice mayor for economic development, spoke about how available opportunities are under exploited. “Due to lack of enough supply, Kinazi cassava plant is now importing cassava from Uganda and is operating below its capacity,” Twagirimana said.Twagirimana cited an example of mechanised agriculture, which he said was one area with a lot of potential. The district has over 57,000 hectares of land on which to grow cassava. The district says it has established infrastructure for years but infrastructure has not been used in a way that creates social impact, calling for the private sector to come in and supplement these efforts. For example, a pineapple processing factory was set up to produce juice and wine and there is still an issue of encouraging farmers to grow more pineapples.Didace Niyifasha one of the business operators from Ruhango District, called for revival of Ruhango Investment Group. The group, which has been dormant, was designed to have members pool resources and own shares in the investment projects. Agathe Rushemeza, who lives in Canada but hails from Ruhango, said the district needs to develop a communication strategy and clearly detail the investment opportunities so that even those in the diaspora can come on board. The stakeholders tasked the district to prepare a database of all partners and then design a booklet detailing each investment opportunity or projects, the related cost and how the investors can put in their money. MP Gloriose Uwanyirigira advocated for setting up savings schemes for each sector so that there is a buffer in the event of disasters or poor harvest. Cassava farmers have been adversely affected after their crops were attacked by a devastating desease known as Kabore The district officials explained that low agricultural output has not only affected resident livelihoods but also agro-processing factories in the area. “The Ministry of Agriculture imported new disease-resistant cassava varieties but multiplication level is still low. We want investors to come in and roll out the crop from a much wider area because there is ready market at Kinazi Cassava plant,” Twagirimana said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
