What is KIIWP?
KIIWP abbraiation standing for Kayonza Irrigation and Integrated Watershed management Project, designed in order to respond to the most affected area of Kayonza District, and the project is building on the success and experience of the recently completed KWAMP project. In Eastern Province, especially in Kayonza District, farming communities have been facing a persistent issue of severe drought that brought an additional burden to the systemic challenges faced by Rwandan farmers in terms of land scarcity, loss of soil fertility due to insufficient sustainable environment management practices and farmer participation in rural development planning.
Goals, objectives and Targets
KIIWP’s development goal is to contribute to poverty reduction in the drought prone Eastern Province of Rwanda’ especially in Kayonza District .
The objective is to improve food security and incomes of 50,000 rural households on a sustainable basis and build their climate resilience.
KIIWP’s direct target groups is 50,000 poor and food insecure rural households (HH) representing 225,000 persons who belong to the poorest Ubudehe categories 1, 2 and 3.
Strategic commodities
KIIWP will support the main livelihoods of the farmers for both provision of staple food and income generation. Paddy, maize, potatoes, soya, as well as horticulture are anticipated to be KIIWP major crops.
The Project will improve the resilience of smallholder farmers to droughts and effects of climate through increased level of production and productivity of selected food and cash crops , livestock and improve market access and business development.
Engagement of young gradutes in building capacity of farmers organizations in kayonza
Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF) has signed the MoU with SPIU IFAD Funded projects (http://spiu-ifad.minagri.gov.rw/index.php?id=79) for the implementation of the Kayonza Irrigation and Integrated Watershed Management Project (KIIWP) since 2021 especially focusing on the strengthening farmers organization capacity through improvement of cooperative managerial aspects, throught strategically engaging young graduates and enable them to working and living with farmers, coaching them ,advising them, and mobilizing them while ensuring cooperatives performance and productivity as direct outcomes.
in the first fiscal year 2020/2021 which started in july 2021 and ended June 2022, 15 young graduates were recruited and deployed in the 15 cooperatives located in various sectors of kayonza (Twungubumwe-Ryamanyoni, TERIMBERE MUHINZI NDEGO BYIMANA, TWITEZIMBERE-NYA, KOPAIRWI/NKONDO, GIKADINI, TWITEZIMBERE RUBONOBONO, KOTWIDIKA , ABIZERANYE, KOAISORWA, COCURIKA, TUGIRUBUKUNGU NDEGO [Ndego], TERIMBERE SHIRINYOTA, TWISUNGANE MIGERA [Mwili], COCURIRU [Kabarondo], KOPIBABA [Rwinkwavu]) to support in the strengthening cooperative capacity in terms of financial management, coaching cooperative committees on leadership, facilitate in cooperative record keeping, coaching farmers on various topics from good agriculture practices, postharvest handling, linking cooperatives to the market, facilitate cooperatives to access finance, mobilzing farmers on registration in smart nkunganire. in addition, RYAF staff have been collaborating with local government authority in their sectors of operation, to mobilize and coach farmers on construction of kitchen gardens as way of encouraging members of cooperative as well as other members of community nearby cooperative to eradicate malnutrition especialy for the children under 5 years old. in this fiscal year of 2022/2023 (july 2022 to june 2023), 7 Technicians having expertise in horticulture production, and graduated from Rwanda -Israel internship program were deployed in the project intervention area to support in the supervision and management of the actiivities of production of fruits trees and management of existing horticulture orchard on the area of above 1000 ha and in strengthning capacity of the farmers to achieve an increased project ownership, thus, performance.
for info http://spiu-ifad.minagri.gov.rw/index.php?id=79
for info http://spiu-ifad.minagri.gov.rw/index.php?id=79