Africa Agriculture News

Access to agricultural information in Rwanda is becoming a reality with inauguration of an Agricultural Information Communication Centre (AICC).

Funded by the governments of Rwanda and Belgium, AICC aims at collecting, storing and disseminating information on the agricultural sector in the country. The information will be collected from the field and ascended to the centre for processing and dissemination. Such information may include market prices, pest management, and appropriate cropping practices.

Equipped with Information Communication tools like a website, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Management Information Systems (MIS), a digital library, and a modern audio-visual studio, the centre has been built in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.

Scientists, researchers, farmers and extension officers as well as business community can use it to search of information.

One does not necessarily require walking up to the centre to access the information because the information is also available on the website. Farmers who are scattered all over the country will be using community telecenters (centres with Information Communication Technology equipment like computers and internet) in rural areas to access the information.

The centre will help control inflation, according to the governor of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), Mr François Kanimba. It will also facilitate farmers to locate markets for their produce and interact among themselves while exchanging information with the hope that it will lead to increased production.

The government expects to create thousands of new jobs and generate income for small scale entrepreneurs through fish farming.

In this year’s budget allocation, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta seeks to construct hundreds of fish ponds and fish processing facilities under the Fish Farming Productivity Programme in a bid to promote food security, create jobs and wealth.

In last year’s budget, the Fisheries department received Sh1.12 billion that was meant to fund the construction and stocking of 28,000 fish ponds countrywide. Construction of most of the ponds has been completed, with some entrepreneurs having already harvested the first batch.

The second phase of the project was allocated close to Sh3 billion in this year’s budget, most of which will be used to develop supporting infrastructure that will reduce post harvest losses such as refrigeration and processing facilities, and the provision of core resources like production of fish feeds, transport and marketing.

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Johannesburg — The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) had a 26% vacancy rate but spent 96% of its budget on salaries and a scant 4% on research, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said yesterday.

At the heart of the failure of more than 90% of agricultural land redistribution projects is government neglect in provid ing services to new farmers, such as agricultural extension services and the research services of the council.

The government has been criticised over many years by opposition parties for the way in which the council has been managed and funded.

Yesterday, in reply to a parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance MP Laurie Bosman, Ms Joemat-Pettersson noted that the vacancy rate at the council increased from 22% on March 31 2008 to 29% a year later. On March 31 this year it stood at 26%.

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Harare — More than 6,5 million kilogrammes of tobacco are being delivered to the auction floors every week following an improvement in the supply of hessian bags.

The bags have been in short supply and were being sold at the open market at exorbitant prices. Zimbabwe Industry and Tobacco Auction Centre public relations manager, Ms Kudzayi Hamadziripi, yesterday said deliveries had improved and full sales were being conducted.

A full sale at Zitac comprises 6 400 bales. “There have been restrictions during the past weeks as farmers failed to deliver their crop due to the short supply of the wrapping material.

“On Monday, we registered an increase in deliveries as most farmers were anticipating good prices at the beginning of the week,” she said. Latest information from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board shows that throughout last week, deliveries almost doubled to 6,5 million kilogrammes from 3,5 million kilogrammes the previous week.

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United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is to partner 10 states in Nigeria to ensure increased agricultural productivity and guarantee food security for the citizenry.

USAID Mission Director, Ray Kirkland, who stated this on Thursday at the National Agriculture Investment Plan Stakeholders’ Workshop in Abuja, added that in the next five years USAID would closely work with the selected states to boost the production of rice, cassava, cowpeas, sorghum and aqua culture.

Kirkland said since 2005, USAID has been implementing a large demand-driven private sector-oriented activity known as ” Maximise Agriculture Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites (MARKETS) in Nigeria”.

It is aimed at working with agro-processors, credit organisations, suppliers of agricultural inputs and farmers’ and producers’ organisations to increase productivity, output and incomes of small farmers.

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