Rwanda is food secure—Kalibata

As other regional countries suffer from food shortages, Rwanda’s newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Agnes Kalibata, says that the country is food secure. “Rwanda made enough harvests earlier this year before the dry season started,” Kalibata said. The minister refuted reports that Rwanda is one of the opening markets where Uganda is currently selling its foodstuff. Uganda’s state Minister for Agriculture, Aggrey Bagiire was reported to have said that, “Selling food to regional markets is a contributory factor to famine although the biggest problem has been the dry spell.” Several districts in the West Nile, northern and north-eastern Uganda are all reported to be facing food shortage. The same crisis has been reported in Kenya where the country’s President Mwai Kibaki was quoted to have declared the famine in parts of the country a national disaster. “In the next six months, up to 2.5 million people representing close to 10 percent of the country’s population will be in need of famine relief,” Kibaki was quoted in media. However Kalibata said that Rwanda has been exporting to other countries in the region. “It is worrying that this might lower our food stocks. The good news is that the dry season is coming to an end,” says the Rwandan Minister of agriculture. Rwanda has in the last five years recorded a good performance in the agricultural sector owing to its economic growth programmes. This was evident with 16.4 percent increase in food crop production last year. According to statistics from the Central Bank, the sector also boosted Rwanda’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 7.9 percent in 2007 to 11.2 percent last year. The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) report says that this was the highest economic growth Rwanda has registered in five years. About 91 percent of Rwanda’s economically active population earns its living, directly or indirectly, from agriculture. Ends

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Rwanda is food secure—Kalibata