Rwanda stresses agriculture as growth sector

KIGALI, Rwanda - The government will continue to invest in agriculture which is the main backbone to development, and as one way of supporting a rapidly expanding population.

This was said last week by the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Dr. Agnes Kalibata during the 2012 Population and Housing Census result presentation that was held at the Kigali Serena Hotel.

“The different agricultural developments we have today were not there 10 years back and government has continued to develop more strategies such as land consolidation, land management, the private sector has been involved more in agriculture, tradable commodities have increased for the past 5 years, farmers continue to be sensitized on good agriculture practices and with all these more production is expected which will address food security hence cater for the growing population of the country,” the minister said.

It was noted that agriculture contributes 30% of economic growth of the country and occupies 70% of the total population which is mainly the rural people and therefore this is why such a sector needs more concern if the country is to achieve more development in the next 10 years.

Population of Rwanda grew to 10.5 million which is a 2.4million increase since 2002, a 2.6% annual average growth rate, with women dominating it with a 51.8% and therefore a big need for support to the agriculture sector.

“This is because of the improved livelihoods for Rwandans which has still contributed to an increase in life expectancy,” the Director General of the National Institute of Statistics Rwanda (NISR) Yusuf Murangwa said.

Murangwa said life expectancy had increased to 13.3 years for the last 10 years that is a 64.5% from 51.2% and this is because of the improved health and wellbeing of the Rwandan population.

“More health facilities have been built, children immunized, mosquito nets supplied plus the constant strengthening of the Community Health Based Insurance (CHBI), which all contribute to the wellbeing of Rwandan, hence has improved life expectancy increasing on population,” Murangwa said.

The health sector therefore saw increase in non- private health facilities from 579 in 2010 to 720 in 2011 before the last PHC was concluded.

In the same report, it was again noted that the number of people who are educated in the country had increase and therefore such a development could help improve on agriculture hence improve on productivity.

Other developments in the same report are seen in poverty reduction which now stands at a 37.8% of which one million people are below the poverty line.

More people are now employed reducing the unemployment percentage to 3.4% in 2012, access to water increased to 73% and electricity to 18% , settlement standards have improved with 49% of the population living in clustered household, 34% in scattered areas, 2% settled in a planned manner plus 14% in quarter settlement.

It is noted that 80% of the housing units in Rwanda are occupied by owners whereas 15% by tenants.

The United Nation Resident Coordinator Lamin Maneh appreciated such findings which he said would give the Rwanda government a clear way of implementing the set up development activities.

“PHC dissemination which has happened immediately after enumeration is an indication of the government commitment to have timely data for evidence-based policy making and accountability,” Maneh said.

“Such results will therefore inform us today of who we are and where we live and therefore will allow calculations for where Rwanda stands on different indicators that measure the progress in health, education, plus other social and economic sectors,” he said.

Development of such a report was supported by different development partners such as One UN Rwanda, UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women, UK aids, European Union, World Bank, UNICEF, among others.

By Agnes Bateta, Monday, April 07th, 2014


SHARE: