Milk production increased so were the Milk Collection Centres in Burera District in areas where the CDAIS project was conducted. ©FAO/Gilbert Kayitare

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources organized a national policy dialogue on “Agricultural Innovation Systems” to analyze enabling environment for Agricultural Innovation Systems in Rwanda, and made actionable recommendations for improvement.

The policy dialogue was part of the capacity building efforts under the project “Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems” (CDAIS) implemented  by Agrinatura, FAO and, in Rwanda, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources with the financial support from the European Union.

It created a platform of official discussions on the policy between institutions and other actors such as farmers, processors, consumers and transporters, producers, processors, private sector representative, service provider, Government representatives, representatives of International Organizations, among others.

The CDAIS project made intervention focused on three innovation partnerships or ‘niches’ in Rwanda, which include, Cassava value chain in Ruhango district, Dairy value chain in Burera district, and the Rwangingo – Karangazi catchment located in Gatsibo and Nyagatre districts, in different Provinces of the country.

FAO Representative in Rwanda, Gualbert Gbehounou, emphasized on the importance of having a conducive environment for any innovation to thrive.

“We may have well developed projects on paper but for interventions to succeed there has to be political support and national policies that facilitate a conducive environment for the actors,” Gualbert said.  

Innovating through dialogue

At the opening of the dialogue, Arnaud de Vanssay, Head of Section Rural Development of the Delegation of the European Union to Rwanda, said that farmers play a great role in bringing solutions in agriculture to the table and this has been the approach used by CDAIS project in creating the platforms and in organizing the dialogue.

“When people talk about innovations, some think about complicated issues like Information technology. But innovations come from the dialogues, putting people together around the table. Only few people can invent something, but to bring new ideas into use, you have to discuss with different people and combine their ideas to create something new that works,” Arnaud noted.

Key policy issues

Policy issues that existed across all niches include, production of key crops has increased responding to Rwanda’s policy environment, technical inefficiencies in the value chains such as high costs of production, untapped yield potentials, use of inputs, subsidies.

There were also limited market linkages beyond the existing district-based processing plants, post-harvest losses or lack of adequate handling technologies as well as limited product diversification by processing plants, among others.

Semwaga Octave, Director General of Strategic Planning and Programs Coordination at the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, noted that the policy dialogue is a good opportunity for farmers and policy makers to share experiences, and it can be an entry point for scaling out Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation System approaches to establish sustainable multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Success stories 

During the project implementation farmers were trained and connected with markets. Hakizimana Aloys is a milk farmer from Burera district. He says that through the project he got to know about other cattle keepers, Milk Collection Centres (MCCs), transporters as well as processors.  

“Through the trainings we learnt how to negotiate prices. As a cooperative we can ask the clients to offer us a better price given the prevailing conditions, something that had never happened before,” Aloys said.

Following the training, Theodore Ngwijabahizi and other milk transporters formed a cooperative that helps them to make their work more organized and look for more markets as a cooperative.

“Our capacity as a cooperative to advocate for better working conditions was built. Through a cooperative we learnt of a market in Kigali for our milk. We got those markets and we’re about to sign a contract,” said Theodore.

In Rugango, cassava farmers who benefited from the project increased the quality of cassava, created a network of cassava dealers. Their network improved tremendously their production owing to collective access to financial loans, fertilizer and seedlings.

They were linked to the Kinazi cassava processing plant which buys most of their cassava produce.

Emile Nsanzabaganwa, General Manager of Ruhango District-based Kinazi Cassava plant said CDAIS helped them to know their responsibility to the farmers and increased trust between the farmers and the company.

About CDAIS project

CDAIS brings together key stakeholders in the agricultural innovation systems of each eight pilot countries (Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Honduras, Laos, and Rwanda) to assess needs as well as to elaborate and implement national capacity development plans for agricultural innovation.

The ultimate objective is to promote innovation that meets the needs of small farmers, small and medium-sized agribusiness and consumers through establishment of stronger collaborations and partnerships.

The project addressed Capacity development at individual, Organisational and enabling environment, and these three dimensions are interdependent and must be addressed together to achieve agricultural innovation. It is linked to the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP), a G20 initiative.

Contact:

Teopista Mutesi | Communications Specialist | FAO-Rwanda | Email: [email protected] or [email protected]