Expects Over 15,000 Tonnes of Cassava Harvest

The Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), expects a large harvest after the recent expansion of its cassava farm located in the Eastern Province.

Brig. Gen. Alex Ibambasi, the CEO of RDF's new production arm, Agro Processing Industries Ltd, explained the expansion.

"We have expanded and added over 600 hectares and we now have a total of 1,400 hectares," Ibambasi said adding that harvest begins next month.

"We expect a minimum of 15,000 tonnes but it could go up to 19,000. We will sell it. We will not process it because, currently, we don't have processing plants," Ibambasi said.

The cassava project in employs over 500 people.

Beans are also planted within the cassava plantations.

In Gabiro, on a 2,000-hectare farm, about 4,000 tonnes were recently harvested.

Ibambasi said that they now plan to plant soya beans on 2,000 hectares in addition to 2,000 hectares of beans.

"We also have about 100 hectares of pineapples that have just been planted. We have 10 coffee washing stations, all over the country, and we will start buying coffee from growers, next week. We target to get 500 tonnes of green coffee."

Agro Processing Industries Ltd also has a big plan for silk production (raising silkworms).

"We are in the process of building silk rearing houses so that we can export silk, in the near future," Ibambasi said.