RWAMAGANA–A government delegation has started the evaluation of district performance contracts (Imihigo) in the Eastern Province.

The committee dubbed “Government hybrid delegation”, comprises technicians from the Ministry of Local government, Ministry of Commerce, Prime Minister’s Office, Rwanda Revenue Authority and other government agencies.

The exercise is mainly handling challenges pertaining to agriculture development.

Speaking in Rwamagana, yesterday, the chairman of the delegation, Jean d’Amour Gatera, said agriculture remains the backbone of the country’s economy.

He said they were assessing the implementation of priority programmes as given in districts’ performance contracts.

“Economic development and poverty reduction strategy and millennium development goals are our main concerns,” he said, adding that the evaluation gave an opportunity to prepare for future Imihigo, basing on lessons learnt from the previous evaluation.

The official, who never wanted to disclose the findings prematurely, said most districts generally showedg improvement.

“This evaluation helps us to assess the progress in implementation of districts’ targets and also identify the major challenges that impede their effective implementation. It allows us to find solutions to various challenges being faced on the ground,” he said.

Innocent Ukizuru, Rwamagana District Agriculture Officer ,said implementing imihigo had some challenges, too, saying   people’s attitude towards changes in agriculture were a stumbling block.

“We do our best but some farmers have stuck to traditional crops… others don’t practice better methods of modern farming. And of course some are limited by scarcity of land and don’t conform to the demands of land consolidation programmes,” he said.

Most districts in Eastern Province boast of fertile soils conducive for agriculture and farming.

By Stephen Rwembeho, The New Times