Rwanda: Ministry of Agriculture to Improve Its 5 Percent Annual Growth

The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (Minagri) says it has introduced strategies and mechanisms to improve the growth of the agriculture sector. This comes after Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda(NISR) last month indicated that the sector only registered a 5% growth last year despite government's heavy investment in agriculture. Speaking to The Rwanda Focus, the State Minister for Agriculture, Tony Nsanganira, said that the agriculture sector has been achieving an annual growth of between 4 and 5% over the last few years. "The target is to achieve an average growth of 8.5% under EDPRS 2 so we need to keep working hard on productivity. Government has been investing heavily in agriculture and we still have a great potential to increase productivity, particularly for our eight priority food crops, export crops and livestock in general," Nsanganira said

Priority food crops which Minagri has been working on under the crop intensification program since 2007 include rice, maize, soya beans, beans, cassava, bananas and wheat. Other programs which were put in place to increase productivity and improve agriculture growth include promotion of inputs program. This covers seeds and fertilizers, irrigation and the introduction of mechanization program in 2009. The minister further says that the private sector has also started coming on board to build on investments that the government has been making over the last 15 years.

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