Rwanda to Host Global Conference on Food Security

Rwanda to Host Global Conference on Food Security
By Ivan Ngoboka

This story originally appeared in the New Times.
Rwanda will, at the dawn of 2014, host the fourth annual International Food Security conference.
The three-day summit, scheduled to start on January 13 under the theme, “Cracking the Nut,” was announced yesterday at a news conference in Kigali.
Tony Nsanganira, the head of agribusiness department at Rwanda Development Board (RDB), said Rwanda was selected based on its reputation of good agricultural practices.
“This conference, the first of its kind in Africa, is expected to bring together over 300 delegates from 22 countries around the world, with a purpose of pitching ideas on how to eliminate food insecurity in member countries,” Nsanganira said.
Multi-platform conference
He added that the conference will not  only provide the country a platform to exhibit its ideal practices in agriculture, but will also offer it a chance to pick lessons from other  participating countries.
Raphael Rurangwa, the director-general of planning  and programme co-ordination at the Ministry of Agriculture, said the conference will be crucial  in discussing strategies aimed at eradicating food insufficiency  and rural poverty, as is stipulated in the Second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS2). 
“The meeting will also focus on cultivating the interest of more local and foreign players to invest in the agriculture sector,” Rurangwa said.
Milton Funes, the country director of Global Communities, a non-government organisation that advocates for socio-economic empowerment of the masses, said  the event  will discuss the possibility of extending more financial services to rural  farmers and also help them process their produce as part of value addition.
“This conference is crucial because it targets enhancing the performance of agriculture, on which about 80 per cent of the country’s population is dependent,” Funes said.