{"id":42284,"date":"2020-11-24T14:59:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T14:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/farmers-demand-subsidies-as-cost-of-chili-french-bean-seeds-hit-roof\/"},"modified":"2020-11-27T16:06:52","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T16:06:52","slug":"farmers-demand-subsidies-as-cost-of-chili-french-bean-seeds-hit-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/farmers-demand-subsidies-as-cost-of-chili-french-bean-seeds-hit-roof\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegetable seeds production requires synergetic effort among horticulture stakeholders in Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is under this context that a meeting of stakeholders in horticulture subsector was convened in Kigali on 20th November 2020 to discuss issues and opportunities around the seed industry in Rwanda. <\/p>\n

Participating horticulture farmers expressed concerns over hiked vegetable, fruits seed prices especially French beans and chili and appealed to the Government to introduce seed-subsidy program to facilitate their farming.<\/p>\n

They explained that chili farmers need Rwf 700,000 or Rwf 1 million to afford seeds to plant on a hectare depending on sought variety while the price for French beans seeds to be planted on a hectare is Rwf 500,000.<\/p>\n

Devotha Mukaserire, the representative of farmers\u2019 groups involved in the agriculture of fruits, vegetables and flowers in Rwanda cited higher price for Hybrid seeds as one of major challenges facing farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeds for vegetables are very expensive. Most of them are imported leading to higher prices. That\u2019s the most challenging issue. This pushes farmers try to evade the high cost by multiplying seeds themselves with inadequate skills that sometimes multiply seeds from sick crops resulting into the spread of crop diseases,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mukaserire explained that chili and French beans are the most expensive even though seeds for tomatoes, carrots and green pepper and green pepper are not sold at fair price.<\/p>\n

She appealed to the Government to intervene by producing expensive seeds locally to make them affordable at lower cost or implement subsidy measures to facilitate smallholder farmers who fail to plant these crops due to soaring price.<\/p>\n

Emille Uwimana, a chilli farmer in Rwamagana district also reminisced on the higher and demanded for measures to subsidize vegetable seed price.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am required Rwf 720,000 to grow chili on a hectare and over Rwf 500,000 to grow French beans on the same land. This is additional to funds invested to hire arable land and pesticides making it a huge investment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Uwimana said that expensive price incurs loss sometimes in case of poor market conditions.<\/p>\n

Alex Uwizeye, Country Coordinator of AgriProFocus, an international multi-stakeholder network in the agri-food sector explained that expensive seeds matters but should be taken into business perspective. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe consider something expensive when invested money cannot be recovered. However, it is corresponding when something expensive brings good productivity. The matter should be finding out whether everyone can afford such seeds. Not everyone can afford it but we don\u2019t want everyone to grow chili,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Uwizeye however explained that concerned parties including AgriProFocus are seeking remedy to produce vegetable seeds locally. <\/p>\n

Dr Assinapol Ndereyimana, a researcher at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) explained that French beans and chili are particularly for business people.<\/p>\n

\u201cChili is exported and seeds grown in most places are the same. It is rarely sold at low-cost. The seeds for chili are not expensive on one hand because many people are doing it for business purposes. I am against the idea of introducing subsidy program for chili growing yet it is like other businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Ndereyimana highlighted that other seeds are classified into different categories that farmers can chose from a wide variety matching their financial means.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that onion seeds vary from Rwf 10,000 and Rwf 40,000 while the cost of Hybrid seed costs Rwf 150,000.<\/p>\n

RAB is undergoing research on chili seeds so that they can be produced locally. <\/p>\n

Jacques Tuyishime, the Managing Director of Holland Green Tech which sells agro-inputs including vegetable seeds among other agricultural equipment explained that high cost of vegetable seeds emanates from resources investing by manufacturers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanting chili on a hectare might require between Rwf 700,000 and Rwf 1 million investments on seeds. However, the produce recovers the capital and generates profit. If chili seeds take 10% of the capital, it doesn\u2019t mean expensive cost. Farmers have inadequate means sometimes requiring them to seek loans from financial institutions. It takes big investments but generates huge returns,\u201d he observed. <\/p>\n

\"Horticulture<\/figure>\n
\"Devotha<\/figure>\n
\"Alex<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Stakeholders in horticulture including Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), AgriProFocus, HortInvest project and Holland Green Tech are holding discussions on key issues in the horticulture seed industry to find solutions for persisting challenges in the sector including hiked vegetable seed prices. } <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"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-42284","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\/42284","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\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42284"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=42284"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=42284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}