Rusizi farmers demand maize mill for value addition, eliminating post-harvest losses

{Maize famers in Bugarama agro-zone, Rusizi district, have called on the authorities to avail them with maize milling plants to enable them add value to their produce for sale and own consumption, instead of offering it cheaply to middlemen who return and sell to them expensive processed flour.}

“Establishing a maize processing plant would motivate farmers to increase the yields, enable easy obtainment, value addition, avoiding post-harvest waste and better prices,” said one of the farmers, Mbarubukeye Claver, in an exclusive interview with IGIHE.

The agronomist of Rusizi district, Marie Alice Bayizere, says the district administration will keep advocating for investors to establish the said maize mill.

“There is no maize mill in the area; but farmers should not seek for its establishment from the government but from private investors who should be convinced of the quantities and quality of maize produced in the area,” says Bayizere.

Maize farming in Bugarama valley is practiced by farmers from Nzahaha sector, Bugarama, Muganza, Gikundamvura, Nyakabuye and Gitambi sectors with members working together in different cooperatives.