Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Tuesday launched a project worth 800,000 U.S. dollars meant to create jobs in poultry farming.
The project, financially supported by Africa Solidarity Trust Funds (ASTF), will work directly in the production and marketing segment of the value chain by supporting business opportunities for young women and men to produce seeds for poultry and aquaculture value chains as well as assist small-scale producers to sustainably increase their production and develop effective market linkages between cooperatives, producers’ and traders’ associations.
Rwanda is part of the four recipient countries of 4 million U.S. dollars in Eastern Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda) to benefit from the ASTF.
The fund was launched in 2013 as a unique Africa-led initiative to improve agriculture and food security across the region.
It is part of efforts to promote nutrition sensitive agricultural diversification to fight malnutrition and enhance youth employment opportunities in eastern Africa.
Jobs will be created in agricultural sector for young women and men in order to improve their incomes and increase access to food, according to officials.
In Rwanda and Burundi the project will focus on poultry while in Uganda and Kenya it will focus on fishery.
Speaking at the launch in Kigali, Dr. Christine Kanyandekwe, the deputy director of Rwanda Agriculture Board in charge of Animal Resources, said the project will boost the country’s efforts to fight extreme poverty and hunger especially in rural areas.
Rwanda, she said, choses poultry due to its high demand in terms of eggs and pullets compared to the current production.
“We need 600,000 pullets every month to satisfy the market while we currently produce 200,000 pullets only,” she said.
The project will provide both financial and technical support, according to officials.
Dr Otto Vianney Muhinda, the FAO Rwanda Assistant Representative in charge of programs said the project will offer training about poultry especially how to shorten the production cycle and reduce the associated risks for small farmers so that they can provide high quality pullets.
It will also provide equipment such as incubators, construct poultry houses and long term loans. He added that the project support will cover all the value chain operations, including commercialization of produce.
“We are secured in terms of energy foods but in terms of constructive ones we still have a long way to go hence the need for this project,” said Muhinda.
Poor households, especially those headed by women are to be prioritized.
The project will also boost the school feeding program in the country by availing at least two eggs per child a week in selected schools in a bid to fight malnutrition among vulnerable children, officials said.
The program is expected to sustainably assist small scale producers to increase their production and constitute producers ‘ groups to develop into commercial organizations with effective market linkages such as cooperatives and associations for the marketing of potential surplus.
The project to be implemented in three years is an initiative of African heads of state to enhance the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) priorities with special focus on Hunger Free Horn of Africa, the African youth charter and the UN System-Wide Action Plan on Youth.
Youth below 24 years constitute more than 60 percent of Africa’ s population and over 70 percent of them live on less than 2 U.S. dollars per day.
FAO believes that by generating attractive and decent jobs for the rural young women and men within the agriculture sector the project will significantly contribute to increased food security, livelihood resilience and reduced rural poverty.
(Xinhua) —
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