Rwanda: in Rubavu, tea crops impacted by floods

2023-05-28 22:25:53
The plots of many farmers were destroyed by the floods that devastated the western and northern provinces of Rwanda on the night of May 2-3. Rubavu district was one of the hardest hit. Along the Sebeya River, tea plantations, one of the country’s most important exports, were partly flooded. A disaster for producers who fear that this kind of episode will multiply with climate change. From our special correspondent in Rubavu, In the middle of his plot, Pierre Ngirababyeyi is still counting the damage left by the floods. Two-thirds of his tea plantation in the valley were destroyed by the waters. A work of more than ten years almost entirely covered by mud. “I had 13 hectares with which I might earn money, says the farmer. I earned between 600 and 700,000 Rwandan francs each month. My children might study at university thanks to this. But because of these disasters, I don’t know what to do anymore. In this cooperative of nearly 2,000 farmers, producers are busy trying to protect what remains of their damaged plots. The workers, shovels in hand, dig the bed of the main canal that crosses the plantation. “The water carried the sand from the river bed into the plantation,” explains Florent Musavimana, agronomist. We are in the process of restoring the size of the drain to protect our plantation. Next harvests in two years The next step is to uproot the destroyed tea. But the return to normal will be laborious: for new plants, it takes at least two years before the first harvests. A significant shortfall for the affected producers, who bought this land at high prices. “We estimate the losses at 350 million Rwandan francs,” says Florent Musavimana. Although floods are frequent in Rwanda, this last episode was one of the most violent in recent years. According to geography researcher Joseph Tuyishimire, the region’s topography makes it all the more vulnerable to these events. “The literature says that before, the region was covered with natural forest,” he says. This has given way to agricultural activities which allow the increase in the flow of water. The overpopulation of the region also aggravates the material damage caused by these disasters. With around 38,000 tonnes exported last year, tea is one of the most important crops for producers in Rwanda where almost 69% of the population is engaged in agricultural activities.
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