Farmers are just beginning to feel the full extent of the pains caused by the Rwanda-Uganda border closure and the Coronavirus pandemic. The traders complained that the market for their goods have shrunk leading to losses.

Kanani Jean Bosco is a member of a big co-operative that has been practicing commercial farming in the Mugina marshland in Kamonyi District for close to two decades. At first they used to sell in local markets and traders who came from Kigali making marginal profits.

But their fortunes changed for the better when in 2008 they got another market in Uganda, Ugandan traders would come with trucks to the marshland and pack all the onions, paying them at good prices.

This went on for years, the co-operative expanded its projects and the members started earning from their farming. They plant onions on 73 hectares of land, getting up 18 tonnes per hectare.

Mr Kanani started growing onions at the age of 17 before joining the co-operative. The progress these farmers were experiencing was too however come to a dwindle when a political feud between Rwanda and Uganda led to closure of the border between the two countries.

“Everything came to a standstill when the border closed, the Ugandans used to come and buy all our onions, and at a good price could no longer come,” said Mr Kanani. He said since the Ugandans stopped coming, they have never got any reliable alternative market for their onions. “Last year we made untold losses, prices on the local market fell as low as Rwf150, it was too bad.”

Mr Kanani said the Ugandan buyers have kept in touch with them, and they keep asking if there are any ways through which they can get the onions but there seems to be none The co-operative now sells its onions to consumers from Ruhango, Gisenyi and Kigali, who take it cheaply, and the prices keep fluctuating.

Mr Kanani and other farmers have been getting financial and technical support from Oxfam through funding from the European Union, which they have used to modernise their farming, increasing their yield from 130kgs per acre to 200kgs.

“The closure of the border between Rwanda and Uganda was a big setback for their market, Ugandans used to come and buy the onions, but the farmers are stuck...”, said Tuyizere Thadee, the acting mayor of Kamonyi.