Rwanda’s New Times reported on October 13 that Rwanda will fully promote the development of hydroponic cultivation agricultural technology in Rwanda. Hydroponic cultivation is one of the ways of soilless cultivation, which is characterized by the use of mineral nutrient solution to plant crops, and there is no need for soil in the process of crop nutrient absorption. It is reported that compared with traditional soil culture, the advantage of hydroponic cultivation is that under the condition of reducing water consumption and land area by 80%, crop yield can still be greatly improved. In addition, hydroponic cultivation can reduce the invasion of crops by soil borne pests. According to the data of the Ministry of agriculture of Rwanda, planting in the greenhouse through vertical hydroponics can help farmers harvest about 500 tons of crops per hectare, while traditional soil culture can only harvest about 30 tons.
At present, the Ministry of agriculture of Rwanda has allocated 38.1 hectares of land as the special land for the development of hydroponic cultivation before 2024, and set up special subsidies for private enterprises developing this technology. In addition, the government of Rwanda also promised to invest 8.2 billion rupiah (about US $8.05 million) in hydroponic agriculture by 2024 through upgrading, building greenhouses and providing hydroponic cultivation infrastructure. Charles bucagu, deputy director of agricultural research and technology transfer of Rwanda agricultural and animal resources development committee, said that Rwanda’s hydroponic cultivation agricultural technology is mainly used for the cultivation of high economic value crops and disease-free seed breeding. At present, the Ministry of agriculture of Rwanda has taken vegetables, fruits, cassava and sweet potato as the priority crops for the development of hydroponic cultivation agriculture in Rwanda. He pointed out that Lu’s hydroponic agriculture will require at least 68.5 billion Lu Lang (about US $67.27 million) investment in the next two years, and the Lu government will cooperate with private enterprises to achieve this goal.
Source: Economic and Commercial Department of the Embassy in the Republic of Rwanda
Post time: Oct-27-2021