No infertile soils in Rwanda, says Gicumbi’s prominent farmer

There are some people who could have thought of practicing farming but gave up on the idea after having realized their plots of land were infertile soils, but Gicumbi’s prominent farmer, François Mugiraneza, all soil is fertile if cared for. On Byumba road leading to Gicumbi District trading centre, when you talk about Mugiraneza, little children will eagerly volunteer to lead you to the home of the farmer residing in Kageyo Sector whose life has excelled revolving around from various ventures in his farming. According to the village residents, Mugiraneza earned prominence when he continued being involved in various farming activities and his persistence paid off. He’s now a model farmer. Mugiraneza started his farming with only Rwf300, 000 in 2004 in which he bought a cow to purposely provide him manure to improve yields on his one acre where he was cultivating maize. He says with some advice from the government officials; he improved on his farming and the returns from the first yields were encouraging; he decided to expand the enterprise. The father of six says; “through the government’s teachings on modern farming, I went on improving until 2006 when I managed to get 2 hectares and I begun thinking that there could be something good in farming.” After he realized lots of profits in farming, he says he later went to Uganda and bought two milk cows which he says improved much in his farming venture. He currently practices wheat and maize farming on 10 terraced hectares. “You see whatever size of the plot of land you have; you can use it for farming and yields you good harvest if you care for it, no soils in this country are infertile” he says, adding that especially when you trim terraces, soils become fertile. Mugiraneza further went into other ventures as he now rears 89 pigs, goats and 2000 birds which he says have high demand. “I grew up knowing that with a little effort, you can become rich through farming. I realised that keeping pigs, birds and goats could be a profitable venture,” he says. Rulindo and Gicumbi Districts are the leading districts in exporting eggs to the neighbouring countries. Mugiraneza’s farming is now admired far and wide as some of his customers come from as far as Kigali. He is now a major supplier of crops to Rwanda Agriculture Development Authority and others like pigs’ meat and eggs to the super markets in Kigali. He sells one pig at Rwf300, 000. According to Migiraneza, he earns Rwf500,000 as a profit per month. “Many people do not undertake farming as a commercial enterprise for fear that it is too expensive, cumbersome, and has little returns,” he notes. However, Nsubuga says that the returns are good. “I urge people to venture into farming because it is profitable,” he adds. However, Mugiraneza says he faces a challengesof lack of electricity as he spends over Rwf40, 000 on fuel for the generator he uses. “We don’t have electricity in this village, and so I spend much on poultry farming. Young poultry need to be kept warm by being kept close to a source of light 24 hours, so, a lot of fuel is spent on them,” he says adding that strong winds sometimes destroy his wheat. Mugiraneza now plans to fight poverty in his village through expanding his farming that would see every area resident adopt his way of farming. He employs about 80 workers during harvest season. He also plans to construct an abattoir in the district to boost his farming. I want to take the responsibility of teaching other residents by encouraging them to venture into farming as it seems promising,” he said, adding that he wants to establish a mega model fam where residents can come and learn from. Ends