The fresh dark green cassava leaves sway from one direction to the other as small insects scuttle around, doing quick errands combing the soil for food. <\/strong><\/p>\n “All this cassava you see here, was planted by the Rwanda Defence<\/span> Forces,” says Lt John Sebakara<\/span> as he points at the huge plantations stretching towards the horizon in Rwanda\u2019s eastern province.<\/p>\n Ordinarily, Lt Sebakara<\/span> and other soldiers would be in the jungles with guns training how to defend and assault their enemies. But taken up by the pressing food insecurity, the RDF<\/span>, like any other army associated with guns, decided to take up hoes to till the land for agriculture. <\/p>\n “Our mission is not only to cultivate, but to involve farmers. We train them and tell them to go and implement what they have learnt,” adds Lt Sebakara<\/span> as he kicks some small mounds of loose soil, which give way to a battalion of wheezing black ants. Huge chunks of idle government land formerly used as military training grounds for churning out gun wielding soldiers, have been transformed into agricultural farmland with a view to support national poverty reduction strategies.<\/p>\n Armed with forked hoes and cutlasses, the dedicated soldiers donning full army uniforms and gumboots<\/span>, descended on the virgin land clearing bushes for cassava plantations.<\/p>\n The RDF<\/span> through its Agro Processing Industries Ltd (API) has cultivated 1,300 hectares of cassava expected to be harvested in the last quarter of 2011.<\/p>\n PI\u2019s Director Finance and Planning, Lt John Sebakara<\/span>, says API has four strategic business units. They are coffee and silk industries, Gako<\/span> crop and horticultural production, Gabiro<\/span> crop and horticultural production and dairy industry.<\/p>\n With nine coffee washing stations and one mini station, API exports 207.3 tonnes<\/span> of green fully washed Arabica<\/span> coffee. At US$ 3.9 per kg, it brings 469,097,179.2 FRW<\/span> US$19457.<\/p>\n Rwanda has identified an Indian investor who will set up a processing plant. The factory will process the cassava into flour, starch and ethanol for exports to neighbouring<\/span> countries.<\/p>\n The cassava has already created employment for the locals. The workers, which comprise widows and widowers employed to work in the gardens get a salary of RF<\/span> 45,000 (about US$76) per month.<\/p>\n “This work is helping us a lot. We now have a group like a SACCO<\/span> where we pool our money and give out to members in a rotational manner,” says Collette Mukarubayiza<\/span>, a 51-year-old widow.<\/p>\n While there are no actual figures, Rwanda is said to have cut down its defence<\/span> budget, shifting the funds to agriculture. In 2003, African Union issued a directive dubbed “The Maputo Declaration” for African leaders to increase their investment in agriculture to 10% of their national budgets. <\/p>\n “The failure of many African countries to increase their spending towards agriculture has been seen as a serious impediment to the continent\u2019s mission to boost economic growth,” says Dr Cris<\/span> Muyunda<\/span>, the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA<\/span>) Chief Executive Officer (CEO). <\/p>\n ACTESA<\/span> , an alliance of institutions, is the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA<\/span>) specialised<\/span> agency.<\/p>\n COMESA<\/span> through its specialised<\/span> agency, embarked on a programme<\/span> to ensure smooth flow of seeds from surplus to deficit areas by harmonising<\/span> standards and removing trade barriers that hinder free-flow of seeds among member states.<\/p>\n Rwanda is one of the countries that have successfully implemented COMESA<\/span>\/ACTESA<\/span> programmes<\/span>. Through the distribution of better seeds and training on better farming techniques the country has seen the production of its principle crops – maize, cassava, beans and bananas soar. The RDF<\/span> is a typical example of an efficient army that has gone out of war battles internally and in neighbouring<\/span> countries and turned to hoes. The fresh dark green cassava leaves sway from one direction to the other as small insects scuttle around, doing quick errands combing the soil for food. “All this cassava you see here, was planted by the Rwanda Defence Forces,” says Lt John Sebakara as he points at the huge plantations stretching towards the horizon in Rwanda\u2019s eastern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[289],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-joseph-olanyo"],"bylines":[{"id":289,"name":"Joseph Olanyo","slug":"joseph-olanyo","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":289,"name":"Joseph Olanyo","slug":"joseph-olanyo","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Sector performance reports show that in the 2010\/2011 Financial Year, the Government of Rwanda spending on agriculture stood at 10.2%, slightly above the Maputo Declaration of 10%.
In 2009\/2010, Rwanda\u2019s annual average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for agriculture was 7.4%. <\/p>\n
The Rwanda Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr Agnes Kalibata<\/span>, contends that linking smallholder farmers to markets is key to achieving food security in Africa.<\/p>\n
With the post-genocide government committed to rapid economic recovery, prudent fiscal and monetary policies, liberalisation<\/span> of the economy, and institutional capacity building, the economy has rapidly rebounded.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"