MAFAP team meets with top Rwandan officials to discuss coffee, potato and honey value chains and policy monitoring support

The Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) team met with Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and high-level officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), as well as top officials from the National Agricultural Exports Development Board (NAEB) and the International Growth Centre (IGC), as part of round of meetings on ongoing agrifood policy support to Rwanda, a MAFAP partner country.

The MAFAP Rwanda team met with the Director-General of Planning, Dr. Chantal Ingabire, and Director-General of Agriculture Value Chain Management and Trade, Dr. Octave Nshimiyimana, and other staff at MINAGRI to discuss MAFAP ongoing policy support activities in 2023/2024.

In that regard, the MAFAP team will update its policy monitoring indicators on price incentives and public expenditure Rwanda, and will also provide support in the form of price-setting analysis for the potato value chain and stakeholder mapping for the honey value chain. The potato, honey and coffee analyses are expected to inform Rwanda’s next Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation (PSTA 5) for 2024-2030.

MAFAP team members for Rwanda Davide Del Prete and Clarisse Mukaneza also held discussions with NAEB senior management to go over the findings from a recent MAFAP economic analysis report on reforming the current price-setting mechanism coffee cherries, the fruit from which coffee beans are extracted. 

The NAEB took note of the recommendations contained in the report and the proposed new prices will be introduced over the next few months. MAFAP will support the NEAB to introduce the new price-setting mechanism and will help with the upgrading of the Smart Kungahara System, a digital platform that will enable the digitization of all transactions from the coffee farmer to the buyer accessed through the system and will also record several farm activities. In the same vein, the MAFAP team will start working on a report on digitalizing the coffee value chain, and for which the team met with Mphatso Kumwenda of the IGC to discuss potential collaboration.

The MAFAP team also had the opportunity to meet bilaterally with the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda, Dr. Ildephonse Musafiri, as well as with FAO Representative in Rwanda, Coumba Dieng Sow to debrief them on MAFAP activities, administrative matters, and the meetings with the Directors-General.