The government has obtained a grant worth €89m (Rwf 69.2 billion) from the European Union to support agricultural programmes focused on increasing food production nationwide.

The deal was signed yesterday between the Minister of Finance, John Rwangombwa, and Michel Arrion, head of EU Delegation .

“With the approval of these funds, we shall increase our original multi-annual programme for the year 2008-2013 by 30 percent which is quite significant. Rwanda is among the top ten countries worldwide for which EU has decided to increase their funding by almost one third,” Arrion said after the signing ceremony.

“This is due to the exemplary progress Rwanda made in recent years in good governance, sustainable development and the fight against malnutrition with a three pronged approach; to address food production, access to food and nutritional aspects.”

The Livestock SPIU briefing beneficiaries before receiving cows

The Bugesera Natural Region Rural Infrastructure support Project (PAIRB) distributed 315 goats to 105 families under its irrigation development component. With the aim of developing production, the project promotes the integration of cattle and goat rearing with irrigated farming.  The first to benefit from this support are families from Mayange, Rilima, Gashora and Rweru Sectors. Each family received 3 goats aged between 9 and 15 months.

26 April 2012- The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources Permanent Secretary Ernest Ruzindaza welcomed Ruben Echeverria Director General of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) today as they discussed how CIAT can support the sector going forward.

DG Echeverria commented that CIAT is celebrating 45 years of global operations and is now thinking of new focus areas for the International organization to concentration on.   In the future in Rwanda the organization would like to assist in the areas of forages, beans, expertise for the newly developed Gene Bank, and soil management.

Permanent Secretary Ruzindaza assured CIAT that these four areas are key targets for the Ministry and that all support is welcomed.

Permanent secretary in Minagri Ernest RUZINDAZA meeting a delegation of five members from Uganda led by the Assistant Commissioner for Policy Analysis, a representative of the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Robert Bellarmine Okudi and the Head of the National Agriculture Advisory Services arrived in Rwanda for a four day visit to their counterpart the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources Rwanda.

The purpose of the visit was to discuss issues related to food security, good governance and accountability in the agricultural sector. The team stressed that Rwanda was ranked the least corrupt country in East Africa following the recent Transparency International report, and thus they came to learn from their neighbor.