Hinga Weze’s Farm Service Centre rises to the challenge of quality agricultural inputs facing farmers

Desire Muhire.

Hinga Weze has pledged to reduce some farmers’ challenges including unawareness of weather forecast, lack of access to quality seeds and market for their farm produce under its Farm Service Center Model.

The Feed the Future Rwanda Hinga Weze Activity is a five-year, $32.6 million USAID-funded project that aims to sustainably increase smallholder farmers’ income, improve the nutritional status of women and children, and increase the resilience of Rwanda’s agricultural and food systems to a changing climate.

Twenty thousand farmers from three sample districts will benefit from this pilot project.

Those Districts include Nyabihu, Nyamagabe and Gatsibo and were selected basing on the fact that they have high rate of stunting.

The project initially will help agro-dealers to construct their “Farm Service Center Model” to solve agri-business related challenges.

The project, which has been successful in some countries where it was initiated, will generate permanent jobs for 36 employees and one hundred thousand farmers are expected to have access to cheaper and better quality of agriculture inputs within three and half years of the project ahead.

According to Hinga Weze officials, agro-dealers will benefit 75% of their business construction plan and the all stuffs to be used in Farm Service Center Model, while 25% will be covered by agro-dealers.

Hinga Weze chief of party, Daniel Gies said that the conception of such project came after realizing challenges faced by a big number of lower families such as stunting.

“In Rwanda, most people are facing stunting and malnutrition, we conducted analysis to see where access to inputs is facing challenges, facing high cost, facing low efficiency of distribution.” He said.

Hinga weze project is currently working in ten districts with high stunting rate.

According to Emmanuel Mugabo, an agro-dealer in Nyabihu District, the project will enable farmers to boost their businesses.

“This project will enable us to expand our agriculture, we have been experiencing countless hindrances such as low quality of seeds and shortage of other agriculture inputs,” he said. 

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