New Weather Phenomena Causing Rwandan Farmers to Seek Advice
Bad weather and climate change have led to poor harvests in many regions in Rwanda, particularly in the Eastern and Southern provinces, where farmers are now calling on the government to provide accurate data on weather forecasts before the planting season.
Sources in the ministry of agriculture said that the government is currently studying solutions to unfavourable weather patterns on its crop intensification programmes that seek to boost both food and cash crop production.
One pineapple farmer said that harvests were affected by lack of rain and constant overhead sunlight last year – a phenomenon that farmers had not experienced before.
“We as a co-operative suffered the whole of last year. We have been working since 2009 but last year was our worst. We usually harvest five tonnes of pineapples per month but now we have been harvesting only 200 kilogrammes per month,” Augustin Nduwimana, head of the Nyanza Pineapple Co-operative said.
Kanaka Menehune