The four cooperatives of whose financing agreements were signed on Monday are; COPAMIRU, a cooperative of rice farmers, COPROMA a bee-keeping cooperative, Kora Mworozi of Cow rearing and SUFACO, a cooperative of sugar cane farmers in Akagera Swamp.
The four cooperatives were divided a sum of USD 50.000 (Rwf44,131,250.0)
The US Ambassador to Rwanda, Peter Vrooman said that financing the Small and Medium-sized cooperatives will help improve the members’ living standards and help enhance food security.
“These projects have to improve lives of the citizens. They will create jobs and help them (population) save more money which will help them improve nutrition. Their economy will improve and it will solve some of their problems though not all of them,” Ambassador Vrooman said.
Amb. Vrooman further said that the projects that were financed include those with solar irrigation systems in agriculture and other agri-projects that aim to achieve food security in the country.
Laurent Rutikanga a sugar cane farmer and a member of SUFACO Cooperative from Bugesera District, said that the April 2018 rains caused floods that saw the cooperative lose 46 ha of land planted with sugar canes.
He says that the finance they were given will help the copeerative dig a small dam in Akagera Wetland where they cultivate sugar canes which will help the cooperative prevent the floods. This, he believes, will increase productivity.
“We will put in more hard work. We usually yielded 70 tonnes per hectare but after preparing well the wetland, we believe the produce will reach 100 hectares per hectare,” Rutikanga said.
The Director General of the Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA), Prof. Jean Bosco Harelimana urged the cooperatives financed to well manage the funds in developing themselves individually and their areas of residence in general.
“Those who might think they came here to get the funds for misuse, RCA is telling you, this money belongs to the country. It is for the members of your cooperatives. We need to find changes realized when we pay a visit to your respective cooperatives,” he said.
Since 1994, the US Embassy to Rwanda has helped 114 cooperatives develop. Rwanda counts over 9000 cooperatives countrywide.
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