The Director General of RAB (Rwanda Agriculture Board) Dr Telesphore Ndabamenye received a courtesy visit from Einat Weiss, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Rwanda.
Dr Telesphore Ndabamenye and Ambassador Einat Weiss discussions focused on strengthening the existing partnership in horticultural modernization and dairy development.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) in cooperation with MASHAV, – the Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation-, established an agricultural center dubbed ‘Rwanda-Israel Horticulture Center of Excellence’ to streamline Rwanda’s horticulture industry at Mulindi.
The center is based on the Indo-Israel model of “Centers of Excellence in Agriculture,’’ and includes transfer of knowledge; capacity building and demonstration; agro-inputs (nurseries for better seedlings and varieties) and fresh produce.
It displays a wide range of technologies for horticulture productions, and is made available for applied research and development, training and exhibition.
The cooperation between the two countries has been strengthened over the last few years by important agricultural projects including a professional internship programme that has been enabling Rwandan young graduates to pursue agricultural courses in Israel since 2012, among other projects.
Every year since 2012, hundreds of Rwandan university fresh graduates go to Israel for an 11-month internship in vegetable farming, fruit tree farming, plant protection, soil conservation, irrigation techniques, advanced agriculture under international standards, computer economics, project planning, and post-harvest courses.
So far, 626 Rwandan students have attended the internship, and they are grouped into a cooperative where they started their own horticulture projects. (End)