The Sustainable Agricultural Productivity and Market Linkage Project (SAPMP) has kicked off comprehensive land husbandry activities on Nyiramageni hillside in Nyirimageni site located in the districts of Gisagara and Nyanza, Southern Province.
Land husbandry activities aim to control soil erosion and increase soil fertility which will ultimately boost the land productivity.
Thousands of farmers have been employed by the SAPMP as man power to participate in the transformation of their land using comprehensive land husbandry technologies. Apart from Nyirmageni hillside, SAPMP will also develop Nyirmageni marshland.
The main objective of SAPMP is to strengthen sustainable agricultural productivity and market linkages through increased agricultural productivity of farmers and improved marketability of agricultural products within the project areas of intervention.
Throughout the project, it is expected that approximately 500 ha of hillside and 600 ha of marshland will be developed. The capacity building of farmers and agriculture infrastructure such as drying facilities and storages will be provided in order to increase the productivities of agriculture crops and their qualities.
SAPMP also seeks ways of strengthening the marketability of produced agriculture products. This intervention will be mainly made in the areas of the recently completed KOICA funded project: Rural Community Support Project (RCSP). They are Ruterana in Muhanga District; Kajevuba and Ruzigambogo in Gasabo District; Kanyonyomba in Gatsibo District; Rwinkwavu in Kayonza District; Bwanya in Gicumbi and Gatsibo Districts and Gakenke in Gakenke District.
By improving post-harvest capacity and broadening access to market and financial services, the Project will enhance agriculture value chain in these areas and as well as strengthen the sustainability of KOICA project in Rwanda. Especially, a close cooperation will be made with WFP for this objective through its Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) program.
About 13,019 households and approximately 56,000 people will directly benefit from SAPMP.
The project will also benefit other value chain actors including users and operators of farming machineries, processing equipment and facilities, agro dealers and laborers in construction.
SAPMP is particularly keen on vulnerable groups who need more support from the project. The project target group consists of smallholder farmers and low-income households who cultivate up to 0.2-0.3 ha in marshland and 0.3-0.5 ha in hillside.
The project will give specific support packages to them and monitor the extent to which the project target group access project benefits. SAPMP will also develop special measures to target women farmers, especially women heads of households, and resource-poor farmers with little land for cultivation to ensure their inclusion.
SAPMP is funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and implemented under SPIU World Bank and KOICA funded projects of the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB).