Women to focus on horticulture

EASTERN PROVINCE KAYONZA — Women grouped under the Commercial Integrated Farming Initiative Programme (CIFI), in Kayonza district, hope to improve their household incomes through shifting production to high yielding horticulture. The CIFI is an initiative under an umbrella NGO known as Women for Women International. The women on Wednesday underwent training on how to change from subsistence farming to commercial farming. The training was organised by Women for Women International in partnership with the Rwanda Horticulture Development Authority (RHODA). The programme to empower rural women that runs from 2008 up to 2010 targets a total of 3,000 beneficiaries. In an interview, the programme manager, Esther Mukundane said, wednesday’s training attracted 50 women from Kayonza where the programme is hosted. The beneficiaries are women who are considered most underprivileged and were selected with the help of community leaders. They have so far received 45,000 suckers from Rwanda Horticulture Development Authority (RHODA) which were planted. Berra Kabarungi, the Country Director, Women for Women International urged women to work hard and utilise the country’s security to better their living standards. “It is hard to have peace in a family where there is poverty, you never get happy with the children,” she observed. Olivier Twizeyimana, a specialist in RHODA said: “We train them to carry out agriculture in an organised manner.” He added that once the trainees put into practice what they learn, it would help them improve their production capacities. Ends