{{Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) in collaboration with JICA are holding a meeting to share current progress and future implementation structure of PiCROPP (Project for increasing crop production with quality Extension Services in Eastern Province).}}
The RAB-JICA project PiCROPP aims at increasing productivity of paddy and horticultural crops by the targeted farmers’ cooperatives in Bugesera and Ngoma districts. The phase 3 stage of the project has been implemented since May 2012.
The evaluation team is led by Japanese expert Jiro Aikawa who was introduced by the Japanese Prime Minister in the last TICAD V as someone who brought great impact in African agriculture. Aikawa has succeeded in doubling the incomes of 2,500 farmers in Kenya.
Aikawa has also been able to get African women engaged in agriculture to take an approach of “making something that is saleable.” Under this method, the women go to small village markets to confirm for themselves what is selling well, and then efficiently make agricultural products with high added-value.
This method of having the farmers themselves think about such matters is currently known as the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment Project, or “SHEP,” and it has been arranged in a model that Japan will promote in the future in 10 countries, Rwanda being the first country.
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