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By Annonciata Byukusenge
Ndahayo Joseph wakes up at 5:00 a.m. every day. His main activity consists of taking care of crops in a 15-ha farm located at Rungu, a remote rural village at Musonga Mountain in the Volcanic area, Musanze district in Northern Rwanda.
“Before joining Tekana Urishingiwe Muhinzi Mworozi we experienced the loss extreme caused by erosion because the erosion is from volcanic mountains and landslides passed with our potatoes.”
Ndahayo with other 40 members of KOABUIRU growing Irish potatoes at the edge of Volcanoes National Park on Musonga Mountain, joined Tekana Urishingiwe Muhinzi Mworozi in 2020. They farm potatoes under volcanoes at Virunga National Park.
In the 8 ha of cooperative insured, Ndahayo has 1ha insured. In 2020 his potatoes were affected by the impact of climate change caused by the long dry season.
“In 2023 my farm of Irish potatoes on 1ha was affected by drought. The Tekana Insurance compensated me 450.000 Rwfrs. Before joining Tekana I experienced an extreme loss like this, but not covered. I thank our government for this initiative to support farmers by providing 40% in Tekana.” Ndahayo mentioned.
KOABUIRU currently has 8 ha of Irish potatoes insured under Tekana. Climate change, too much rain or lack of it, is the major challenge, along with pests and diseases that attack their crops!
“Before we would grow crops fearing that we may lose everything and even our land be auctioned by the bank, but today we farm with hope knowing that insurance will compensate us in case of losses,” the president of cooperative Habimana said.
He added that they started by ensuring one ha on 111,500Frw. When they lost production in 2020, they were compensated with 536,000frw by BK Insurance.
NAIS- Tekana Urishingiwe Muhinzi Mworozi Achievements
From 2019, 6,448,769,162 Frw has been compensated to farmers and livestock keepers (3,492,644,699 Frw to farmers and 2,956,124,463 Frw to livestock keepers, since the start of this program).
The crop farmers are 161,445. The 84,576 are men and 76,869 are women who take out insurance sponsored by the government under the ”TEKANA URISHINGIWE Muhinzi Mworozi” Program every year.
The National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) known as Tekana Urishingiwe Muhinzi Mworozi implements by RAB – CPIU in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture.
