{{Rwandan Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Dr. Agnes Kalibata has concluded a three-day working visit to the Netherlands which began on June 18-21 by invitation of Minister Sharon Dijksma who is in charge of agriculture, nature and food quality in the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.}}
The Aim of the visit was to intensify the economic cooperation between Rwanda and the Netherlands in the agricultural sector.
As Rwanda continues to support the private sector to strengthen itself and flourish in business to support the country’s economy, Minister Kalibata paid a visit to Dutch Minister of International trade and Development Cooperation, Ms. Lilianne Ploumen to discuss Rwanda’s efforts to modernise agriculture sector in all levels for market satisfaction and competitive regional trade based on quality and international standards of agricultural products.
During the meeting, Minister Kalibata recognised the good bilateral relations that Rwanda and the Netherlands enjoy and reiterated Rwanda’s commitment to ensure a conducive environment for Dutch investors in Rwanda and business growth in general.
Min. Ploumen underlined that the Netherlands will continue to encourage and support private sector partnership as one of the ingredients for economic growth.
Minister Kalibata and her delegation was offered an opportunity to visit a modern farm in a town of Leusden in Central Netherlands where the delegation learned about farmers intra-support and association system for self-regulations and milk distribution quotas as well as sustainable mechanism to continually develop and improve a livelihood of a farmer.
Other filed visits included SionPlant one of the most important growers of the trendy pot orchid Phalaenopsis in the Netherlands and Horticulture Entrepreneur’s winner of 2013.
Minister Kalibata and her delegation also visited FloraHolland Auction, to witness how millions of flowers are sold and distributed in the most organized system in the world of flower business.
The tour of FloraHolland included the demonstration of cargo handling process that makes the Netherlands number one in the world in horticultural products.
When meeting Minister Dijksma at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Minister Kalibata appreciated how farmers work together in development of crop of their choice and all related business around it from production stages, transport, processing and distribution.
Minister Kalibata recognised the Dutch model of agriculture and animal resources development as a model to learn from as it has proven to be effective and efficient to the point where the Netherlands is the world number two in agricultural products export after the United State of America.
The two Ministers discussed the cooperation between Rwanda and the Netherlands on policy matters for food security, agriculture and capacity building and Dutch expertise and exchange for sustainable agriculture sector development.
Minister Kalibata shared Rwanda’s ambition and ongoing efforts to develop agriculture and animal resources sector not only for Rwandan consumption but also for regional markets.
In this regards, Kalibata had a meeting with representative of Friesland Campina, the Dutch number one business in Dairy and milk product to discuss available investment opportunities in Rwanda.
Minister also discussed the preparations progress of the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Agriculture (ICT4Ag) to be held in Kigali from 4-8 November this year in collaboration with Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). All preparations are on track.
While at CTA Minister met all 16 Rwandan students currently following Masters and PhD programs in various agricultural and animal resources trends at Wageningen Research University.
Before returning to Rwanda, Kalibata will also hold a roundtable discussion with the Dutch private sector and visit potato seed growers and farmers.
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