Rwanda in agricultural reform drive

Rwandan Agriculture Minister Murekezi (L) consults the Director of Planning in the Ministry of Agriculture Ernest Ruzindaza at the opening of the conference at Hotel Novotel Umubano yesterday.(Photo /J Mbanda)

Rwanda is reviewing Africa's plan for agriculture reform to use it as a yardstick to measure her own performance in this sector.

The aim is to enhance the reforms that constitute Africa's Comprehensive Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), managed under the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). If the CAADP national review yields success, there's hope to increase agriculture growth rate by six percent and to allocate 10 percent of national budget to the sector, according to agriculture minister, Anastase Murekezi.

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and development partners analysed how far the country has gone in executing CAADP during a one-day meeting in Hotel Novotel Umubano in Kigali Thursday 07/02/2008.

The Agriculture Minister Anastase Murekezi said: "Our aim is to strengthen our efforts to facilitate the CAADP’s future mechanism that will enrich Public-Private Partnership for required investments in the agriculture sector. CAADP will support such national projects as the one-cow-per-household, fisheries and biodiversity promotion in Lake Kivu, and crop intensification through water irrigation.."

The minister’s comment was seconded by World Bank’s Country Representative, Victoria Kwakwa, who welcomed the CAADP implementation review initiative at country level. "We donors have to play a supportive role in coordinating the continental (Africa’s) efforts needed for Rwanda to achieve its goal," Kwakwa said. "This will transform the country from subsistence to modern agriculture."

The meeting also saw the official launch of Research Into Use (RIU), a UK-based programme that focus on research for sustainable agricultural development in Rwanda and other countries.

Reference
The New Times 08/02/2008

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