FAO and Rwanda in bid to build a common vision for sustainable food and agriculture

Credit/FAO Photo

12 November 2014, Kigali, Rwanda – A three-day consultative process was launched in Rwanda today, aimed at identifying potential areas of action to ensure Sustainable Food and Agriculture (SFA) in this pilot country.

The workshop is jointly convened by the FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), together with other key stakeholders in SFA implementation.

“The strategic plan of MINAGRI focuses notably on intensification of livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and crops. We need to discuss in-depth so that our future generation can benefit from our present commitment”, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry, Innocent Musabyimana said.

In Rwanda and in most countries in the world, agriculture is facing an unprecedented confluence of pressures, including population increase, intensifying competition for land, water and energy, urbanization, and climate change.

Greater attention to the sustainability of our food and agriculture systems is urgently required. For effective actions to be identified, prioritized and acted upon, the issues at stake must first be well understood.

The FAO Representative to Rwanda, Attaher Maiga expressed confidence that this SFA approach would realize its objectives in Rwanda. “As you know Rwanda is leading in many areas. In the last 20 years, we have seen substantial progress especially in terms of agricultural development and socio-economic progress”.

Targeting multi-dimensional issues in agriculture

The approach that FAO is taking in these interconnected issues of sustainable food and agriculture is unique. It builds on extensive work promoting sustainability in various agricultural production systems and integrates them into a single approach, while also attending to principles that balance the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable food and agriculture.

Rwanda is the first country in Africa to benefit from this FAO-led pilot which aims to identify critical cross-sectoral issues where one area of agricultural production impacts on another. The process will hopefully accelerate the transition to more sustainable food and agriculture (crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries, and aquaculture) systems at country-level.This was stressed by Mark Davis, FAO Coordinator of the pilot phase of SFA approach.

“We want to build on existing knowledge and initiatives in Rwanda, make adjustments and improvements where possible, to render them more sustainable, and introduce new policy and technical approaches, new expertise and training of farmers and providers of agricultural inputs to fill gaps, where necessary and FAO is ready to help”, he said.

To further enhance these efforts, FAO works in partnership with a limited number of countries, amongst which Rwanda, over the biennium 2014-2015, in assessing and enhancing the sustainability of their agricultural production systems in an integrated way.

The workshop comes after an assessment survey was undertaken to better identify issues, projects and programmes, policies and strategies related to SFA in Rwanda, and a report was produced as a result of this survey. The Government of Rwanda and FAO started working on sustainable food and agriculture (SFA) in June 2014.

More information on the SFA approach:

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3940e/index.html

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