The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (Minagri) has started offering incentives to private sector to invest in agriculture machinery to curb post harvest losses and improve mechanization. The incentives include tax exemption and cost guarantee, according to Ministry’s Head of Agriculture Mechanization and Irrigation in Rwanda. The incentives will be issued to private investors who buy agricultural machineries as to support agriculture mechanization. For instance, if private investor imports a dryer or agriculture machine, he will be exempted from import tax and a 25 per cent subsidy for the total cost plus a 50 per cent guarantee. With only four companies selling agriculture machinery and two others engaged in leasing the equipment, the plan is to increase incentives to ease access to farming machinery in Rwanda. Apart from mobilization of the private sector, several activities have been carried out including setting up eight storage facilities with a 65,400 MT capacity, and an animal feed plant being constructed by a private investor in Rwamagana district. Moreover, 133,621 farmers have been trained in post harvest best practices in order to minimize post harvest losses. Other interventions include establishment of 157 drying grounds, 42 warehouses and 4 metallic silos across the country with a total storage capacity of 134,110 MT. In order to improve productivity and boost overall food security, Rwandan government is targeting to achieve 25 percent mechanization by 2017.

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