Agriculture production in the
previous season A of 2012 increased by 9 per cent, the Ministry of Agriculture
has said.
Season
A runs from September to February of every year.
"We
registered a major increase in the agriculture production in season A of this
year by 9 percent compared to 2 per cent in the similar season of last year.
This is an indication that government programmes like crop intensification are
yielding results," Ruzindaza said.
According
to the official, among the crops that played a key role in increasing the
production pool in season A of 2012 include maize, beans, Irish potatoes, rice,
bananas.
Ruzindaza
explained that in season A of this year, maize production increased by 19 per
cent, beans by 37 per cent whereas the production for bananas increased by 8
per cent, rice production increased by 7 per cent and Irish potatoes by 1 per
cent.
He
told The New Times that in both season A and B of last year, the whole
agriculture increase was at 5.5 per cent.
He
noted that currently the country has 126,000 metric tonnes of food production
in excess, adding that this will help the government in mitigating food
shortages in the future.
He
said that his ministry through National Strategic Reserve bought surplus
produce of the previous seasons from farmers saying that this is aimed at
shielding the farmers from incurring losses due to lack of markets for their
agriculture production.
"Although
there is increase in production, we still have a long way to go, which is why
the ministry plans to vigorously push for the implementation of different
programmes to ensure growth is sustained," he said, adding that they will
mainly strengthen farmers' cooperatives.
He
said so far, 845 farmers' cooperatives have been created countrywide which he
said would help farmers to sell their output at reasonable prices.
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