Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) is pondering over increasing funds to the research lot in this 2016/2017 fiscal year budget as one way of bolstering sector productivity.
According to Dr. Geraldine Mukeshimana, Minister of Agriculture the move will ensure research takes a centre stage towards pushing for agriculture modernization and improving livelihoods.
“Where we are now, the country needs to take charge of its own research and finance it, and this is where we are heading,” she said on Monday during the brief on the forum for agriculture research in Africa (FARA) general assembly to be hosted by Rwanda in June, 2016.
Dr. Geraldine Mukeshimana, Minister of Agriculture
Mukeshimana noted that the agriculture sector cannot be sustainable without backing research adding that this fiscal year, the ministry added sizeable research projects into its budgetary process.
The ministry which saw its share to GDP decline to 31 percent in the first quarter 2015 from 35 percent at the end of December 2014 was allocated Rwf120.6 billion in the 2015/2016 budget but the research lot received meager percentage.
Moreover, research financing is expected to dominate discussions of the four day general assembly that will kick off on June 13, 2016 in Kigali under the theme, “Apply Science, impact livelihoods”.
The 7th assembly which also falls under the forum’s Africa Agriculture Science week is expected to bring over 1000 sector stakeholders including scientists, development partners, policy makers and investors on the continent and beyond.
“This forum offers opportunity to learn from other countries’ achievements especially in applying research,” said Dr Patrick Karangwa, head of research at Rwanda Agricultural Board.
Alongside the assembly, the country will also host its 11th agricultural show under the theme “invest in agricultural innovations for prosperity” which starts on June 13 to June 20, 2016.
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