Zimbabwe and Rwanda delve into a win-win collaborative partnership in seed production

Dr. Olivier Kamana, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources in the Republic of Rwanda, paid a courtesy call on Professor dr. Obert Jiri at the Ministry's stand at the ongoing Zimbabwe Agriculture Show (ZAS) today.

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding last year, the two countries examined numerous opportunities for increasing partnership in numerous areas in agriculture.

Zimbabwe and Rwanda are set to work together on seed production and related extension activities.

Professor dr. Jiri stated that

"They are interested in our very advanced seed production process. They are also interested in our extension system which they applauded and said they want to replicate it in Rwanda".

In the same vein, Zimbabwe and Rwanda will sharpen cooperation towards the digitalisation of seed distribution systems. "We are implementing their E- Input distribution. They are much more advanced in their digital systems. We are going to have a further discussion as a ministry so that we can learn how they have advanced their digital input distribution platform", briefed Professor dr. Jiri.

Dr. Kamana expressed his amazement with Zimbabwe's seed production Industry, stressing that " At this agriculture show, we are impressed to see that Zimbabwe has advanced interms of agriculture mechanisation, irrigation, livestock development and many other domains, and we think that there is a lot to learn from Zimbabwe. We are going to take advantage of the MOU signed last year to start learning and to start collaboration".

He added, "The first area of collaboration is going to be in seed production. I have seen that the seed production system and related extension services are at very advanced level in Zimbabwe compared to ours".

"We will also share with our Zimbabwean counterparts the way we distribute seeds through our digitalised systems", he said.