How Maize Production in Rwanda has Grown by 213 %, reports KT Press

MARRAKESH, Morocco, Oct. 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- For years, Jean Damascene Nkunzwenimana from Nyagatare District in eastern Rwanda struggled to put food on the table, pay bills, take children to school or pay for healthcare.

Yet, Nkunzwenimana woke up every day, headed to his small farm for a day's hard labour - ploughing the land, sowing seeds, weeding and pruning crops. There was no produce. Sometime in 2007, government encouraged Nkunzwenimana with 83 others to form a COTEBARU (Cooperative Terimbere Bahinzi ba Rukomo).   

Before the end of 2008, hundreds of farmers in Nkunzwenimana's village had been supported with a range of incentives including irrigation. Pieces of land that previously harvested one ton, now tripled or quadrupled in production.

Rwanda allocates 10.5% of the annual budget to the agriculture. It is the highest in the region.

Nkunzwenimana's village had suffered what the rest of Africa suffers from, according to data presented at the fourth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-IV), in Marrakesh, Morocco from 8-10 October 2014.

The sudden change that Nkunzwenimana experienced is evidence that Africa can feed itself, despite the continent facing acute food shortages. 

The continent has over 60 per cent of the world's arable land, but according to Abdalla Hamdok, from the Economic Commission for Africa, it lies underutilized.  

Over past five-years, Rwanda has demonstrated this potential. The country has raised maize harvest by 213% from 0.8 tons per hectare to 2.5 tons. 

Experts say this can be replicated across the continent to change the lives of millions of African farmers. But call for gradual transition from subsistence to commercial farming. 

Dr. Fatima Denton of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) said, "…it all depends on conditions, on existing institutions, and on mechanisms that we avail to the most vulnerable sections of our population".

Meanwhile, maize production data in Rwanda also comes as the country joins the rest of the world to celebrate the annual World Food Day on October 21.

July to December 2014 forecasts showed that calorific needs are covered at a rate of 131% at national level. While at district level, the calorific coverage ranges from 2,123 to 4,421 Kcal/per/day - one of the highest regionally. The estimated food balance sheet now shows a surplus of 388,000 metric tons.

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SOURCE KT Press