On February 13, 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) launched 'Rwanda Soil Information Service Project’ (RwaSIS), a new project that is meant to sustainably guide interventions and investments for increased agricultural productivity and environment protection in Rwanda.

The new project is a collaboration project between MINAGRI through Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) and other partners, under the funding of the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (BMGF).

Speaking at the project launch, the Permanent Secretary in MINAGRI, Jean Claude Musabyimana, said that the Government of Rwanda initiated RwaSIS, to conduct a comprehensive soil mapping exercise in a bid to maximize productivity in agriculture, and foster investments in local fertilizer manufacturing.

“The project is well aligned with the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) which projects to maintain the agriculture sector at a relatively stable average growth rate of at least 5.7% per year from 2017 to 2024, requiring considerable gains in land and agricultural efficiency to allow the sector to operate closer to its full potential,” the PS said.

In accordance with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development framework (CAADP) which targets to increase the share of agriculture land under Sustainable Land Management practices from 56% in 2016 to 83% in 2024, Rwanda’s Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA IV), in its priority area 2 “Productivity and Resilience”, is specifically focusing on practices to protect against soil erosion; access to improved inputs (emphasizing on inorganic fertilizers); use of latest high-resolution GIS technologies as well as mobile soil testing equipment for soil diagnostics; research to develop recommendations for location-specific interventions; and update of soil maps.

This project is therefore timely to keep the momentum through establishment of a soil information service that supports sustainable land use, as far agriculture is concerned.