The private sector is struggling to handle seed multiplication following the government decision to let it take the lead in distribution to farmers.

Rwanda Today has learnt that the private sector, which took over in September last year, starting with season A didn’t have the required infrastructures, like warehouses, processors and labs to be used in the process.

The private sector still had to heavily rely on the government to be able to salvage the season, which had already been choked by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 12 private sector players who had been given the tender managed to distribute the seeds; with RAB saying everything generally went well.

“So far, the transition worked out well, for maize for instance all maize producers were able to sell apart from one cooperative in Muhanga, this was the first season, the private sector was therefore supported by RAB,” said Charles Bucagu, deputy director general of RAB.

“RAB was operating at a loss, we could not recover what we put in, the system was not sustainable”, adding that worldover this process is privatised, and that the question should be “how do support them to strengthen their capacity.”

He, however, noted the private sector still don’t have their own warehouses, processing plants and labs.

Farmers had expressed concerns over the government’s decision to surrender the process to the private sector, that they are likely to only look at their profitability, yet the government was playing a much deeper and socially protective role, which included giving subsidised seeds to poor farmers.

For years, the government through RAB has been buying seeds from farmers, multiplying then distributing them across the country, a role it relinquished to businesses last September.

Imbaraga, a nationwide lobby group for farmers had expressed misgivings about the decision, saying, living such a sensitive sector as seeds to the private sector could cause problems.

The body said the private sector is not yet ready to function well in the new role due to lack of capacity.

“The process of seed multiplication and distribution is heavy, the businesses involved don’t have the necessary capacity like infrastructure.

They still depend on government labs, its good the government is still holding their hand” said Munyakazi Jean Paul, legal representative for Imbaraga.