Kigali: June 25^th, 2019:

Today, the Right Honourable Prime Minister, Dr. Ngirente Edouard officially opened the Fourth Malabo Montpellier Forum. This Forum is taking place in Kigali Marriott Hotel.

The Prime Minister stressed, in his keynote address, the need for governments, policy-makers, researchers, entrepreneurs and development partners to empower farmers with the right skills and approaches to increase their production, modernize agricultural extension services and better manage risks.

The Premier highlighted that in Africa, agriculture sector accounts for around 32% of the GDP. Therefore, one way of developing the continent would require increasing investment in this sector as it considerably contributes to Africa’s economies in assurance of food security, agro-processing industries and exports among others.

The Premier shared with participants, a number of initiatives implemented by Rwanda within the framework of digitizing its agriculture. Among them he cited the following:

• The National Information Communications Infrastructure (NICI) policy was elaborated.
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• The Ministry of ICT and Innovation has been established to address national priorities related to digitalization to foster national economic growth and fast-track poverty reduction.
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• Currently, the Management Information System (MIS) allows the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources to get timely data from Districts.
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• Furthermore, an Agricultural market pricing information system e-Soko has been initiated. This digital platform provides market prices on agriculture products.
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• In collaboration with development partners, we a digital project with various mobile services was designed. This project aims at providing rural farmers agricultural information and knowledge to increase their income.

The Prime Minister also mentioned some of the challenges that are still hampering the agriculture sector. These challenges include insufficient agriculture financing, low level of agricultural mechanization, limited agriculture professionalization, climate change and low capacities to meet standards and manage price volatility on international markets.

The Premier called upon policy makers to de-risk the sector so as to attract more investments, and continue empowering youth to embrace agriculture as an attractive and competitive business, strengthen research and extension use of modern technologies and improve agricultural literacy for all involved in the sector.

Click here read the full speech of the Prime Minister.