FAO to institutionalize toolkit for Rural Investment in Rwanda

The toolkit is likely to increase the percentage put in Agriculture Investment from current 5% to more.

Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture in close collaboration with FAO Rwanda is training agribusiness players on the RuralInvest software to enable the preparation of sustainable agricultural and rural investment projects as well as Agricultural business plans.

RuralInvest is a free multilingual methodology and toolkit for preparing sustainable agricultural and rural investment projects and business plans.

It is participatory, interactive and bottom-up and designed to be used with communities, entrepreneurs, government field technicians, project staff and local financing institutions.

Speaking at the RuralInvest usage training in Kigali on Monday, June 17, 2019, Gualbert Gbèhounou, the FAO Rwanda representative said “FAO wants to institutionalize the utilization of RuralInvest toolkit to enhance National Stakeholders investments, planning and Monitoring capacities.”

“You may recall that in the last three years, hunger affected one in every nine people of the planet. To reverse this tragic, agriculture production must be improved and increased of course along with the decrease of food loss,

“And if we don’t do that, the sustainable development goal of zero hunger will not be achieved.” Gbehounou warned.

Developed by FAO with the support of National and International development partners, RuralInvest assists FAO’s efforts in enabling inclusive and efficient agricultural food system.

It has been introduced in countries in Latin America, Africa, Central Asia, Asia and North Africa.

The Director General of Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) Patrick Karangwa said “Based on testimonies that we have, the toolkit is very important. As you may be aware our strategic plan for the transformation of agriculture puts more emphasis on planning sector for agriculture growth. Having a private sector leading the agriculture growth is very important to leverage investments in agriculture.”

He added that “The toolkit like this is going to raise confidence in the banks and other financing agencies that support rural investment.”

A Media advisory from FAO Rwanda explains “Any organization or project managing funds or mobilizing resources for small and medium-scale agricultural and rural Investment can apply RuralInvest.

It is ideally suited for: Income generating projects in agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, agro-industries, tourism, transport services, handcraft manufacturing, retail stores, wholesale services and storage services.

It is also useful for Non-income generating projects to improve living standards in rural areas, including health centres, schools, environment protection, roads and drinking water.

Speaking to TOPAFRICANEWS, Dr. MUTAMULIZA Eularie, a holder of PhD in Agriculture Economics as well as a Lecturer at University of Rwanda, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine said that “At the end of this knowledge sharing training we will be able to improve our skills and knowledge on how to use RuralInvest tool.”

“My students also are going to benefit from the toolkit where we can organize also training for students so that they can also use this tool.” Dr. Mutamuliza added.

 Once all stakeholders get the required skills on its use, the RuralInvest tool will be used in planning and institutionalized at country level to improve the investment results in the rural sector in the long-term.