THIS WEEK :High expectations from the agricultural exhibition

Rwandan farmers are expecting to learn more on how to adopt farming technologies in this week’s agricultural show scheduled take place at Mulindi show grounds in Gasabo District, between the 20th and 27th. State Minister for Agriculture Agnes Karibata said that the show under the theme ‘Value addition to Agricultural and Animal products for a sustainable Development’ will be an opportunity for Rwandan farmers to share experiences with other farmers around the world. The objective of the show is to show case technology in agriculture, to make trade deals and to engage in agricultural commercial exchange activities. The show will involve technologies on paper, demonstrations on how to apply technologies in farming and show-casing different products. Already six countries have confirmed their participation. The countries include: Kenya, Uganda, Norway, India, South Africa and Tanzania. According to Karibata more than 170 companies will exhibit their products and 80 percent of these companies are local companies in production and processing. Rwanda will show case one of its innovations, the e-Soko project. This was developed in collaboration with Rwanda Development Board (RDB) IT department to give farmers access to up-to-date market price information “We need to be innovative and develop new farming technologies if we are to improve the livelihoods of farming communities,” Karibata said. Farmers in Rwanda will use ordinary cell phones to ask for up-to-date price from Ministry of Agriculture and those with access to the Internet will be able to obtain this information from the MINAGRI website. After the exhibition, farmers are expected to be equipped with innovative ideas expected to be used to promote agriculture transformation and adoption of new agricultural technologies to increase productivity. The annual Kigali national agriculture Show has been held for 4 times but this years’ show is expected to be the biggest with 170 stands which increased from 92 stands in 2007. Ends