Agric sector eyes recovery after dismal performance

Agriculture sector output grew by a dismal 1 percent and contributed 23 percent to Rwanda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of 2022, according to figures from the National Institute of Statics of Rwanda (NISR). Such poor growth of this key sector represents a drop of 6 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2021 where the agriculture grew by 7 percent, and contributed 27 percent of the GDP. The figures released on Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Kigali show that Rwandas GDP increased by 7.9 percent to Rwf3,025 billion (over Rwf3 trillion) in the first quarter of 2022, up from Rwf2,588 billion in the same quarter of 2021. Three contributors to growth in the first three months of 2022 are services with 47 per cent, agriculture with 23 per cent, and industry 22 per cent, while net direct taxes accounted for the remaining 8 per cent. Industry sector output grew by 10 per cent, while that of the service sector increased by 11 per cent. Ivan Murenzi, the Deputy Director-General of NISR said “so you would say that our growth for Quarter One of 7.9 percent is mainly attributed to the growth in services and industry. Agriculture’s performance of 1 percent is less compared to the previous quarters.” Talking about the case for agriculture, he said that the poor growth rate can be explained in several ways. These include the production of food crops that decreased by 1 per cent due to the production of cereals and vegetables that dropped by 4 percent and 9 percent respectively. Still, the production of export crops reduced by 14 percent, as a result of a 41 per cent decline in coffee production. However, the production of tea increased by 3 per cent. Yet, in the same period of 2021, both the production of food crops and that of export crops increased by 7 percent. Murenzi said that the performance of agriculture for Q1 is linked to the performance of the farming season for 2022, which ran from September last year to February this year. “There were different weather-related shocks that affected agriculture, in different parts of the country resulting into less output for some food crops. And you see a connection between the performance of agriculture and therefore, prices of goods on the market which have also been rising,” he said. Specifically, for coffee, he said that the first months of the year is always not the best season for coffee output. “We expect maybe in the following months for the output to be better, given the just the general patterns of coffee production,” he said. Speaking to The New Times, Fulgence Sebazungu, the president of the Rwanda Coffee Cooperatives Federation (RCCF) said that the low coffee production could be the result of the fact that the first three months of the year were not the harvest period for the crop in all parts of the country that grow it. He indicated that, until mid-March this year, only a few districts including, Rutsiro, Rusizi, Nyamasheke and Karongi had started harvesting, explaining that usually, the major coffee harvesting period is April and May. “We expect that the coffee production for the entire 2022 will be higher than that of last year as the produce is promising,” he said. Drought effect on farm output Evariste Tugirinshuti, the president of the Federation of Maize Farmers Cooperatives in Rwanda told The New Times that there was drought early this year, which mainly affected agricultural harvest in the Eastern Province that is prone to dry spells. He said that the drought hit farms when maize crops had started producing ears in the farming season A for 202, which started in September 2021 and concluded by the end February 2022. “Overall, maize production in 2022 farming season A dropped by about 30 per cent in Eastern Province,” he estimated, referring to the effects of drought on the crop. To help address the problem, Tugirinshuti said “the irrigated farmland area should be increased in order to prevent crop failure during drought.” On March 16, 2022, during a news conference that focused on the country’s economic recovery, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente this year, he said, Rwanda experienced disasters including drought in Eastern Province which reduced crop production such as maize and beans, as well as fodder for livestock. “We set up a special irrigation mechanism for about 7,000 hectares with the maize and bean plantations such that even though the maize production will drop, the decline is expected to be moderate – about 6 percent,” he said, indicating that it would decrease from 378,000 tonnes that were harvested last year to about 357,000 tonnes this year. Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Uzziel Ndagijimana said that agriculture is sensitive to weather conditions, but indicated that the country was increasing investments in irrigation to ensure sustainability of food production. “In the long term, we are trying to address the issue of climate effects by increasing the irrigated land and we will continue to support agriculture to increase productivity,” he said. Rwanda plans to increase the irrigated farm area to 102,284 ha 2024 from over 60,000 ha in 2021.

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Agric sector eyes recovery after dismal performance