Intensification Programme now on track, says Minagri

The Ministry of Agriculture (Minagri) Thursday said the crop intensification programme (CIP), is back on proper footing despite past problems.This comes after members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Monday pointed out that if cases of mismanagement and embezzlement within CIP, as previously highlighted, were avoided, a lot more could have been attained in Rwanda’s food self-sufficiency.Goretti Ingabire, the OAG’s director of performance audit department, on Monday, took PAC members through an August 2007 – April 2010 audit report in which findings again brought to the fore previously reported programme implementation obstacles.These include missing fertilisers at the Rwanda Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) stores; lack of documentation to prove fertiliser transactions; and poor plans on districts’ fertiliser needs during planting seasons.RADA has since then been merged into a new agency – the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), whose mission is developing agriculture and animal husbandry through reform and using modern methods in crop and animal production, research, agricultural extension, education and training of farmers in new technologies. “In the past there were some issues but we have fixed them.. If I remember well, there were some issues of stock management which was not very well done. There was the follow up on seeds. But those kinds of issues were in the audit report of 2009. By that time it [CIP] was under RADA,” said Ernest Ruzindaza, Minagri’s Permanent Secretary.“When you are implementing, you can’t say that everything is okay, at 100 percent. But I think we have corrected the things mentioned in the report”. The report also highlights differences which imply that RADA did not really have a factual figure on stocks. In the five sample districts audited, fertilisers were not properly stored and would often go bad.“For example in Nyamugari sSctor, Kirehe District, we found fertilisers worth Rwf 4 million which had been kept in one place since 2007, yet like everything else, it goes bad,” Ingabire said.Another problem was delays in distribution of fertilisers and seeds to farmers.“We found all responsible Executive Secretaries and agronomists reporting delays. They distribute fertilisers when the planting season is over and the farmers are not able to apply them,” Ingabire noted.“In Busasamana Sector, in Nyanza District, people were given UREA fertiliser but they were not able to use it because the planting season had passed. Again, in Busasamana and Mucyingo, maize growing cooperatives did not cultivate as expected.”It was also reported that seeds were not sent to the areas where they are best suited yet there are people paid to guide farmers on this matter. Spoilt seeds were also supplied to farmers. “RADA had staff, and agronomists, but they did not first verify whether the seeds they were sending to a region were appropriate for it,” Ingabire said.She added that during the planting season of 2009 A, RADA sent 3,500 kgs of maize seeds to be planted on 110 hectares in Muhanga District but all this later went to waste.Ingabire also noted that there were service providers in every district who were contracted by RADA and were responsible for teaching rural farmers on how to use improved seeds and fertilisers but they did not deliver.“There is a service provider called BAIR, in Rutsiro, Ngororero and Rubavu Districts. When we asked them [BAIR], they told us that, in general, they trained 40 percent,” Ingabire, said, noting that it was a waste of resources.On Thursday, the RAB Director General, Prof. Shem Martin Ndabikunze, maintained that previous issues of “negligence” were not caused by RAB but previous caretakers. He stressed that things have improved ever since the issues were first revealed.“We don’t procure seeds. Minagri does it, if it is 100 tones, they deliver them to farmers. Our work is making sure that the farmer use the seeds. We provide extension services,” he said.Commenting on “the administration part” of the project, which is RAB’s main focus, Prof. Ndabikunze emphasised that his new department’s task is to build and strengthen the extension system.“It is why RAB was established. RAB is a new organisation. Our job is to build a new extension system and make sure that it works as the government wants. Efforts are being put in encouraging local government to own it as well”.According to Prof. Ndabikunze, they brought in two innovations – a farmer centred extension services programme and innovation platforms.“We have called in all stakeholders so as to examine issues together and solve problems together so that blame games end. The chairperson of innovation platforms is the Mayor in charge of economic affairs. We want everybody to own it. We are improving and we accept that there are weaknesses and we are going to consult and address them”.

National

Intensification Programme now on track, says Minagri