Agric ministry to merge agencies

PARLIAMENT - The Minister of Agriculture, Christophe Bazivamo, Thursday presented to the Lower Chamber of Parliament a bill that seeks to combine six agricultural agencies into what will be called Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB). The bill that was unanimously passed by the house will see the formation of RAB. The agencies to merge include RADA, RHODA, RARDA, OCIR-THE, OCIR-CAFE and ISAR. Bazivamo explained to the lawmakers that the move seeks to concentrate forces that seemed to be vaguely placed in different offices while all of them were geared at agricultural improvement and quality production. “We want to put more efforts on quality and quantity production in the agricultural sector,” he said, adding that the prime objective of RAB will be to coordinate works related to research in agricultural production. In a move to help local farmers benefit from RAB’s activities, the board will be represented in four zones countrywide for their specific crops. The four respective zones are Ntendezi in Western Province, Musanze in Northern Province, Rubona in Southern Province and Nyagatare in Eastern Province that will exceptionally deal with works related to animal husbandry. In the same move, Minister Bazivamo also explained to lawmakers another project of establishing the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NEB) that will bring together RHODA, OCIR-THE and OCIR CAFE. The three are mainly targeted for their export character in Rwanda’s economy, and Bazivamo explained that this is aimed at increasing the quality and value of what the country exports, hence the increase of income. Ends