Team Working With Rwandan Farmers to Advise on Forages
At night, Rwanda’s capital Kigali is a sparkling carpet of lights. Yet the tightly packed white beams throw light on a more serious circumstance facing the Rwandan government across the country. Population pressure.
How to feed more people with fewer resources was a topic much deliberated at the Africa Agriculture Science Week last week in Kigali. Rwanda is among the most densely populated countries in the world; its population is expected to double to 26 million by 2050.
Farm plots are already among the smallest in sub-Sahara Africa. Yet with declining plot sizes, it’s not only food security which is at stake; but nutrition security too, say experts.
In Rwanda, reducing carbon emissions from livestock production can’t come at the cost of lowering production – millions of farmers depend on it for their livelihoods.
But farmers need advice so they can make environmental choices that won’t hurt their income or livelihoods. This working paper just released outlines options for integrating forages in Rwandan cropping systems to increase forage production.
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