Kamonyi: Farmers Cry Foul Over Unpaid Seed Multiplication Funds Exceeding Rwf 850 million

By The Inspirer.

Around 4,000 farmers who multiply seeds in the marshlands of Kamonyi District have been voicing their concerns about being owed over 858 million Rwandan Francs (Frw) by a company called Rumbuka, which purchases their produce.

These farmers had entered into contracts with Rumbuka, stating that the company would pay them within 42 days from the time it collects their produce. However, five months have passed without payment, and the farmers report that they have tried to contact the company’s management to negotiate, but to no avail, leaving them in a state of uncertainty.

A farmer named Nyiramana Diane said, “They don’t even come to meet with us farmers to explain the situation or tell us what the issue is. When you call them, they keep saying tomorrow, the day after, and so on.”

Another farmer, Mudenge Oswald, added, “We used to pay for health insurance (mutuelle) from the money we received for our produce […] We started spending money in September to begin planting, but we got no support. You can imagine how much we need the money.”

The Deputy Mayor of Kamonyi District, in charge of economic development, Niyongira Uzziel, said that on July 26, 2024, the farmers are expected to start receiving their payments.

Rumbuka’s CEO, Kamali Fraterne, told RBA that the company has been working with these farmers for almost seven years under this seed multiplication program within the country. He assured that if they haven’t defaulted on payments in all those years, it won’t happen now.

He explained that this time, they faced a budgetary issue, which caused the delay in payments. He asked the farmers to be patient, and he confirmed that payments would start on August 26, 2024, and within 15 days, all farmers would have been paid.

Currently, all the seeds needed are multiplied within the country, although those who wish to import seeds from abroad are not prohibited.

The Government’s seven-year development plan, which began in 2017 in Rwanda, aimed to accelerate progress by producing over 3.3 million kilograms of improved seeds. By 2023, this number had more than doubled, reaching over 7.5 million kilograms.

This increase was accompanied by a rise in the amount of fertilizer distributed, with 72,061,938 kilograms provided nationwide in 2023, up from 28,188,389 kilograms in 2016.

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