The Analysis highlighted that farmers complain over the fact that the Ministry of Trade and Industry has set Rrw191 as the sale price for a kilo of Irish potatoes and sold at between Rwf450-500 in Kigali City. <\/p>\n
In a joint press conference by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Soraya Hakuziyaremye, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. G\u00e9rardine Mukeshimana and the Minister of Local Governance, Prof. Anastase Shyaka, the trio explained that setting up price ceiling is done in the interest of farmers.<\/p>\n
The Ministers were answering journalists\u2019 questions on complaints by farmers over the harvest prices set up by the government below the market equilibrium.<\/p>\n
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Soraya Hakuziyaremye, said that setting up prices aims at helping farmers to sell their harvest on adequate and fair prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree years ago, one kilo of Irish potatoes were sold at Rwf50. People should understand and embrace frequent price changes in the market. This is why prices are always studied and regulated. We now want to be working with farmers\u2019 cooperatives to let the beneficiaries know the information on price changes on time.\u201d <\/p>\n
A 32-member committee was set up to observe how prices are respected and over 145 people who didn\u2019t abide by the price ceiling have been punished.
\nThe Minister of Local Governance, Prof. Anastase Shyaka said that food security now abounds and excess food available for sale. <\/p>\n
Prof. Shyaka said: \u201cNow we have good problems. Earlier, we had problems of food shortage; now there is an abundance of Irish potatoes, milk, rice. Crops we used to call subsistence have now turned into cash crops. Production has been abundant and it is causing problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese problems are really good as they push us into another direction,\u201d he added.
\nThe Analysis by Rwanda Civil Society Platform recommended the use of good post-harvest technologies for Irish before they perish. <\/p>\n
The Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. G\u00e9rardine Mukeshimana said that setting up farm warehouse for potato storage is not a priority as there are other more inexpensive methods available.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now focused on the value addition to crops harvested. The harvest collection sites are a better thing we have with regard to resources available. The potato storage facilities can also be set up but farmers cooperatives may lack electricity for their daily operations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Minister Mukeshimana highlighted the lack of capital and poor knowledge of farmers as challenges that impede farmers from getting the expected harvest. <\/p>\n
Dr. Mukeshimana said that Rwanda recently lost its milk market in Uganda and Kenya but 25 rice factories were set up to satisfy the local market.<\/p>\n
On the issue of agro-processing plants that owed farmers about Rwf1.5 billion, Mukeshimana said Rwf480 million has already been paid to farmers.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ministry of Local Governance and of Trade and Industry are working together to promote citizen centered framework in the entire value chain for intensified crops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Analysis of Value Chain for Intensified Crops and Market Price in Rwanda that was done by the Rwanda Civil Society Platform on maize and Irish potatoes revealed that 77.9% of farmers sell their potatoes at farm-gate prices dictated for them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","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":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","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":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38480","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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38480"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38480"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}