The federal government is stepping up investments in irrigation, fertiliser help and local weather resilience because it strikes to guard agriculture from the rising impacts of local weather change and worldwide conflicts, Prime Minister Justin Nsengiyumva has mentioned.
Presenting authorities actions below the theme Strengthening Rwanda's Resilience to Inside and Exterior Shocks earlier than a joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday, July 9, Nsengiyumva mentioned agriculture and livestock, which stay the principle supply of livelihood for a lot of Rwandans, proceed to be affected by climate and exterior shocks.
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“Our nation has largely been affected by the impacts of local weather change in addition to these arising from worldwide conflicts, together with the struggle within the Center East and the struggle in Ukraine,” he mentioned.
He famous that irregular rainfall, extended droughts, floods and landslides proceed to undermine agricultural manufacturing and meals safety.
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“These challenges have an effect on programmes geared toward rising manufacturing and reaching meals self-sufficiency. Additionally they contribute to rising meals costs available on the market.”
To cut back dependence on rainfall, Nsengiyumva mentioned the federal government has considerably expanded irrigation infrastructure throughout the nation.
“To deal with inadequate rainfall, the federal government has invested closely in irrigation programmes. Up to now, we’ve got reached greater than 76,000 hectares of irrigated land. It’s deliberate that, throughout this yr 2026, it will improve to greater than 82,000 hectares.”
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He mentioned the long-term goal is to broaden irrigated land to greater than 132,000 hectares by 2029 via initiatives together with the Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Meals Safety Mission (SAIP), the Small-Scale Irrigation Expertise (SSIT) undertaking, CDAT, KIIWP, ETI, the Giseke undertaking and the Muvumba Multipurpose Mission.
The Prime Minister mentioned the federal government can also be increasing terraces, selling agroforestry and investing in trendy climate forecasting and early warning programs to enhance preparedness towards climate-related disasters.
He recommended Rwandans for exceeding the nation's annual tree-planting goal.
“We want to thank Rwandans who’ve continued to take part in tree planting programmes, with 68 million timber planted throughout 2025-2026 towards our goal of 60 million. The federal government calls upon all Rwandans to proceed working collectively to take care of these timber in order that we will strengthen our resilience.”
Past climate-related challenges, Nsengiyumva mentioned geopolitical tensions have additionally affected agricultural manufacturing by pushing up fertiliser costs on the worldwide market.
“These conflicts precipitated fertiliser costs on the worldwide market to extend by between 15 per cent and 66 per cent between February and June 2026.”
To cushion farmers, he mentioned the federal government has elevated monetary help for fertiliser purchases.
“The federal government has dedicated to masking 50 per cent of the rise in fertiliser costs for farmers, along with the subsidy that was already being offered.”
Because of this, he mentioned, fertiliser subsidies will rise from simply over Rwf39 billion within the 2025/26 fiscal yr to greater than Rwf64 billion in 2026/27.
“These measures will make sure that fertiliser stays inexpensive for farmers and also will contribute to rising its use.”
Native manufacturing of fertilisers
In accordance with the Prime Minister, fertiliser utility has already elevated from 73 kilogrammes per hectare in 2024 to 80 kilogrammes per hectare this yr, with the federal government focusing on 94.6 kilogrammes per hectare by 2029.
He added that Rwanda has already begun implementing a long-term answer via native fertiliser manufacturing.
“We now have a fertiliser mixing plant with the capability to mix 100,000 tonnes of fertiliser per yr, and farmers have expressed satisfaction with the standard of the fertiliser merchandise already produced.”
The federal government may even proceed exempting agricultural and livestock tools, irrigation programs and veterinary medicines from taxes whereas investing in storage services, chilly rooms, crop drying tools and feeder roads to scale back post-harvest losses and enhance farmers' entry to markets.
Challenges associated to poor seeds
In the course of the parliamentary session, MP Germaine Mukabalisa raised issues over licensed seeds that fail to supply anticipated yields regardless of being equipped to farmers. She additionally highlighted ailments affecting ardour fruits and pineapples, notably within the Northern Province.
Responding to the issues, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Sources Telesphore Ndabamanye acknowledged that some seed suppliers had failed to satisfy required requirements.
“Since 2017, we began native seed multiplication, particularly hybrid maize, and concerned personal seed multipliers. We additionally noticed the challenges of seeds that didn’t be productive, and we held accountable the corporate that equipped these seeds.”
He mentioned the ministry is strengthening high quality inspection all through the seed worth chain whereas investing in analysis to develop extra resilient seed varieties.
Ndabamanye added that the draft regulation on plant manufacturing, being labored on, will strengthen accountability within the sector as soon as enacted.
