Rwanda to host African agricultural researchers’ conference

Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) will next week host the first biennial conference on agricultural research and extension outputs, in which participants from Africa and outside will discuss how the sector can be modernised in Africa.About 200 participants from USA, Netherlands, Belgium, Kenya, Ivory Coast, DRC, Uganda, Ghana and Rwanda are expected to attend the first biennial conference by RAB.“We want to display documented research outputs that have been realised in collaboration with farmers through participatory research, we will share technologies so that the end users may use them in their day to day activities,” Dr Daphrose Gahakwa, the Rab deputy director general in charge of research said during a press briefing yesterday.The conference, to be held under the theme; “confronting challenges of food insecurity and poverty in the era of climate change and variability,” will also feature an exhibition by farmers and field visits.Accountability day Other participants will include NGOs, local universities, development partners, policy makers, farmers’ cooperatives and other people involved in implementing agricultural research. As regards food security status in Rwanda, organisers said there is a good progress in terms of volume of production.Concerning climate change, the Director General of RAB, Prof Jean Jacques Mbonigaba said that there are different programmes in place to tackle negative impacts of climate change on agriculture, including distributing crop varieties that can are harvested within shorter time.Gahakwa said the conference is like an accountability day for all people involved in activities related to agriculture research and extension.

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Rwanda to host African agricultural researchers’ conference