Ugandan officials after meeting at MINAGRI
A delegation of Ugandan officials is in Rwanda acquire Rwanda’s experience in using ICT applications for transformation of the agriculture sector.
The group visited Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture & Animal Resources (MINAGRI) on November 18th, 2013 to learn from Rwanda’s ICT application in agriculture as well as what the country learnt from the technologies that were exhibited during the ICT4AG conference.
Dr. Jimmy Pat Saamanya, the Ugandan Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Information & Communications Technology, said the visit was meant to learn from Rwanda’s experience to see how ICT can be used to streamline their long-term development plan for 2040.
“We’ve sent some delegates to several countries with advanced ICT use such as Singapore, but we’ve also decided to come and share the best practices achieved by our neighboring Rwanda,” said Saamanya who was heading the Ugandan delegation.
“We are keen to develop ICT, not only for the sake of developing, but to see how it can help us foster agricultural advisory services.”
The delegation expect to learn a lot from Rwanda, given that the country recently hosted two international conferences on how ICT can be used to nurture development effectively.
One of the conferences was mainly exploring the use of ICT in the agriculture sector.
Raphael Rurangwa, MINAGRI’s Director General of Planning, told the Ugandan delegates that the conference was very fruitful and Rwandans are trying to learn a lot from technologies that were exhibited during the ICT4AG conference.
“As someone who participated in this conference, I can tell you that we learned a lot that I think you can also emulate,” DG Rurangwa told the delegates.
“I can say that we are not yet where others at an advanced level are, but I hope that we can boost these tech apps for farming transformation.”
Some of the technology applications in the process of being boosted include a mobile application that will be developed to ensure easy monitoring of cows distributed through the One Cow per Poor Family Program, commonly known as the Girinka Program, explained Theogene Rutagwenda, MINAGRI Director General of Animal Resources.
Mary Rucibigango, the Coordinator of Agricultural Information & Communication Center (CICA), noted that these ICT applications are being developed not only for effectiveness, but also to cut budget expenses that used to be spent on the similar activities.
The group was also taken through all ICT-driven agricultural services that are being offered in Rwanda, including e-Soko, a system that connects farmers to market information, Agricultural Management Information system (AMIS), community innovation centers among others.
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