Agric budget to focus on containing fertiliser costs, food security

The over Rwf153 billion proposed budget for the agriculture sector in the next fiscal year, will focus on increasing food production through containing the rising fertiliser costs, and ensuring food security amid the growing commodity prices, officials have said. However, this proposed spending represents a decrease of 4.4 per cent or Rwf7.2 billion compared to the over Rwf161 billion under the revised budget for the current fiscal year, which will conclude on June 30, 2022. Such observation was made on Friday, May 27, 2022 as the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) and its affiliated entities were presenting their priorities, during budget hearings, to the Parliamentary Committee on National Budget and Patrimony. Patrick Karangwa, Director General of the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board told lawmakers that the seeds and fertilisers were allocated Rwf31 billion, implying a gap of Rwf25.8 billion. The targeted activities under this programme include distributing over 3,430 tonnes of quality seeds, 50,179 tonnes of fertilisers, as well as 37,736 tonnes of lime with Government subsidy, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources. MINAGRI said that this project faces inadequate funding to subsidise fertilisers and seeds, which could lead to getting less of such farm inputs. It is to note that lime was allocated Rwf2 billion in order to improve farm productivity in districts with soils that have high infertility levels. “This is the money that should be available so that we distribute at least the same amount of fertilisers that was used last [fiscal] year because prices [before Government subsidy] somehow doubled,” Karangwa said. Currently, despite increased Government financial support to lower the fertiliser costs, local farmers have to pay Rwf768 for a kilogramme of urea, representing an increase of about 40 per cent from Rwf462 in 2020. For DAP (diammonium phosphate), a kilogramme costs Rwf832, a rise of 42 per cent from Rwf480 in 2020, while that of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), rose by about 30 per cent to Rwf882 from Rwf620 in the same period. Karangwa indicated the factors that drive up agricultural production include farm inputs such as fertilisers and quality seeds. “When there is limited access to fertilisers, farm produce becomes expensive,” he warned. Underscoring the need for enough funding for strategic agriculture projects, Karangwa said “we are trying to achieve economic recovery from the Covid-19 [pandemic], and we are in this context of the rising commodity prices resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war. Their mitigation therefore, requires interventions that ensure increased production so that there are more locally produced commodities.” MP Theogene Munyangeyo, President of Economic Cluster at the Chamber of Deputies said that Rwanda suffers a gap between its exports and imports [whereby the latter exceeds the former by over $1.6 billion], calling for strategies to tackle such a situation such as through increasing agricultural exports. “We are in a global crisis and one of the means to support us get rid of it is this one [supporting the agriculture sector]. For us to address such a problem, we can address it through this [supporting agriculture sector growth],” he said. For MP Christine Bakundufite, Africa is currently facing a looming hunger, a situation that could not spare Rwanda if nothing is done to deal with the underlying factors. “The prevention measures against such a worst scenario should be strengthened through paying attention to food availability efforts,” she said, calling for strategies to ensure availability of seeds and fertilisers to farmers in this regard. Rehema Namutebi, the Director General of National Budget at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said that agriculture is a very important sector to the country. On the seeds and fertilisers, she indicated that “by the time we finish the budget [preparation], we will have determined how much can be added to address the funding shortage such as through budget revision,” explaining that there was an increase of Rwf9 billion to agricultural input financing because of the increase in [fertiliser] prices. Jean Claude Shirimpumu, Head of Agriculture Cluster at the private Sector Federation (PSF) said production of cereals such as maize, as well as soya should be increased to bridge the gap and lower the cost of animal feed so as to further the small livestock subsector. “Research indicated that the cereal produce available in Rwanda is about 400,000 tonnes. Yet, if animal feed is factored in, the cereal demand would reach 850,000 tonnes,” he said, pointing out that the biggest challenge to small livestock farming is the limited access to animal feed that is partly attributed to inadequate cereal produce. Rwf7.4 billion for the National Strategic Grain Reserve: This project meant to deal with unexpected food shortages was allocated over Rwf7.4 billion. This money will be spent on purchasing and storing 10,000 tonnes of maize and 5,000 tonnes of beans. Also, it will support the expansion of Nyagatare Silos for increased grain storage capacity. In the current fiscal year, the National Strategic Grain Reserve Project was allocated over Rwf4.7 billion. This funding helped buy and store 2,500 tonnes of maize, 2,000 tonnes of beans and 3,200 tonnes of rice. During the Covid-19 pandemic induced lockdown, this strategic reserve supported needy people affected with food relief. Also, it provides food assistance to those affected by drought especially in Eastern Province in the current fiscal year.

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Agric budget to focus on containing fertiliser costs, food security