Mr. Ernest Ruzindaza, the permanent secretary in the ministry of agriculture says, government has big plans for agriculture and supporting women farmers is one of the top strategies to increase agriculture produce.
“We have a vast plan for agriculture as a back bone of our economy and one of the initiatives to curb down hunger is supporting women because they play a big part during harvesting, sowing and production”, said Mr. Ruzindaza.
The agricultural ministry says it is going to deploy specialists down to the cell level ‘Akagari’ to help farmers and provide more information and trainings.
Women farmers constitute 70 percent of the agricultural work force yet continue to struggle to gain access to credit, inputs and extension services.
Agricultural investments by Rwandan government to ensure sustainable food production for that the population has seen the development of marshlands, irrigation schemes and furnishing farmers with fertilizers.
Josephine Uwamariya, ActionAid country director said that, this year’s hunger free score card clearly indicates that Rwanda has shown dedication to addressing hunger and preparing for adaptation to changing climate.
“Based on our experience with women’s farmer groups in Rwanda, we believe that the country can further build on these positive steps by ensuring that more of its agricultural investment reaches women farmers, who produce the big part of the country’s food” she said.
However, Rwanda needs to further increase its investment in agriculture, and ensure that its gender sensitive development approach is translated into increased agriculture to women small holder farmers.
A recent global hunger report still placed Rwanda on the “alarming” category with levels of hunger. The report called for action on several fronts attributing the global causes to the growing demand for biofuels, extreme weather and climate change, and increased financial activity through commodity futures markets (End)