On 27th April 2022 in the City of Kigali, The Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board co-hosted with GAIA project partners and stakeholders a Mid-term Review and planning meeting from 27th to 29th April 2022 in order to take stoke of the progress made on specific activities, address any challenge, and discuss the way forward.
The project aims at providing information and evidence for improving agricultural productivity, sustainable development, and land use, thereby enabling investments in this sector that generate increased economic and environmental returns on investment. It also aims to contribute in developing of a data driven and spatially explicit recommendations for the rehabilitation of acid soils in smallholder farming systems that will guide investments on lime in Rwanda.
The project is designed around eight work packages which include spatial ex-ante analysis, Adoption research on lime value chain, agronomy research for lime recommendations, lime industry support, policy review support, facilitation support, databases and data management, information tools for translating project outputs into public usable products.
The meeting discussions revolved around preliminary results on Ex-ante analysis based on secondary data; preliminary results on the lime sector analysis and lime investment plan; progress on lime value chain analysis and adoption, progress on agronomy research for improving estimates of lime requirements; policy review support and databases and data management tools.
“Guiding Acid Soil Management Investments in Africa (GAIA)” Project is funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). It is implemented by the international Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in partnership with Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa and National Agricultural Research systems (NARS) Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.