{"id":1022,"date":"2025-12-05T22:19:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2025-12-06T04:29:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:29:53","slug":"how-rwandas-ge-potatoescan-save-farmers-moneyboost-yields-bring-back-bees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/05\/how-rwandas-ge-potatoescan-save-farmers-moneyboost-yields-bring-back-bees\/agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rwanda\u2019s GE potatoescan save farmers money,boost yields, bring back bees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Zimurinda prepares to spray his potato field in Kinigi, Musanze district using up to 15 treatments per season to fight late blight<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the misty highlands of Kinigi that span Musanze District in the Northern Province of Rwanda, where volcanic soils have fed generations, 47-year-old farmer Leonidas Zimurinda begins his day long before the clouds lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His morning ritual is never optional: a 20-litre sprayer strapped to his back, its weight as familiar as the hoe his father once carried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these hills, survival depends on how often a farmer can stand between his potatoes and the disease that threatens them: late blight. He sprays as many as 15 times each season sometimes twice a week because a single missed application could undo months of labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His hands, stained with a permanent brown from years of mixing fungicides by hand, tell the story long before he does. \u201cIt is both exhausting and dangerous,\u201d Zimurinda says, wiping sweat from his brow. \u201cIf I miss even one spraying, I can lose everything.\u201d He is not exaggerating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fungicides cost Rwandan smallholder farmers nearly Rwf 175,000 per hectare each season, eating up almost 40 percent of their production expenses. And even with relentless spraying, the diseases always resurface. Sadly, the hidden cost is borne not only by farmers, but by the pollinators the bees that sustain Rwanda\u2019s wider food system<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A new kind of potato, a new kind of hope<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Musanze, on a small research plot run by the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), a quiet revolution is unfolding. Rows of Irish potatoes sway gently in the wind green, lush, and untouched by late blight. For the first time in decades, they have not received a single drop of fungicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are genetically engineered (GE) potatoes, developed by African researchers at RAB and the International Potato Centre (CIP). They carry natural resistance genes borrowed from wild potato relatives once found in the Andes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese varieties may look like the ones we know, but the science inside them is extraordinary,\u201d says Dr. Eric Magembe, a biotechnologist at CIP, Kenya-Rwanda. \u201cThey are built from African knowledge, by African scientists, for African problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field trials across Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria show the same pattern: zero blight infection, zero chemical sprays, and yields reaching up to 50 tonnes per hectare far above what farmers like Zimurinda can achieve when they cannot afford constant fungicide use. \u201cThis could restore dignity to farming,\u201d Magembe adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFarmers will no longer be victims of disease or chemicals. They will be empowered producers.\u201d Beekeepers sense a turning point The implications ripple far beyond potato fields. \u201cThis season, I only lost one hive,\u201d says Ndashyikirwa, cautiously optimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we can reduce chemical use across crops, we will bring back the bees.\u201d Beekeepers know that healthier farms mean healthier pollinators and healthier ecosystems. With fewer toxins in the landscape, fruit trees, vegetables, and wild plants can recover their symbiotic rhythm with bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Can the pollinator bees return to gardens?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwanda\u2019s new biosafety era behind the scenes, a policy shift made this progress possible. Rwanda\u2019s updated biosafety law, enacted in February 2024, opened the door for scientifically regulated trials of modern biotech crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are ahead of many nations,\u201d says Athanase Nduwumuremyi, the senior researcher at RAB and country coordinator of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB). \u201cWere using science-based policy to ensure innovations are safe and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RAB is now expanding trials across more agro ecological zones. If results remain consistent, Rwanda could approve national release of GE potatoes as early as next year. Such a move would mirror Kenya, which has already approved blight-resistant biotech potatoes for commercial cultivation setting a regional precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A food system under pressure Rwanda harvested 475,785 tonnes of Irish potatoes in 2025 Season A3 percent increase from the previous year, driven by improved seed and irrigation investments, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, climate volatility, shrinking farmland, and rising input costs have stretched farmers thin. Biotechnology represents a new frontier one that could reduce losses, improve affordability, and expand opportunities for export to markets like Burundi and the DR Congo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental benefits are equally compelling. Reports by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warn that pollinator declines threaten global food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By slashing pesticide use, GE potatoes offer farmers a chance to produce more food, while equally healing ecological wounds. Safety, science, and public trust Are GE crops safe? Decades of research indicate \u2018yes\u2019. Global authorities, including the World Health Organisation and FAO, affirm that approved GM foods undergo rigorous testing and show no negative health impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magembe reinforces this: \u201cThe taste, shape and nutritional value are all the same. The only difference is these ones are disease resistant.\u201d The future many are waiting for Back in Kinigi, Zimurinda dreams of a farm where his mornings no longer begin with the weight of a sprayer on his shoulders. \u201cIf I can grow potatoes without spraying, I will focus on improving my soil, my seeds, my future,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I will not dread Nduwumuremyi every rainy day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beekeeper Medard Ndashyikirwa (centre) explains hive management techniques to colleagues during a field visit in Gicumbi. PHOTO BY ELIAS HAKIZIMANA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 For beekeepers like Ndashyikirwa, the stakes are generational. \u201cIt is about balance. Healthier farms mean healthier bees, and that means hope for our children,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pacifique Nshimiyimana, the Executive Director of Alliance for Science Rwanda, sums it up in an old proverb: \u201cRoho nzima itura mu mubiri muzima\u201d a healthy soul lives in a healthy body. The same is true for crops – a healthy plant yields abundantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a nation built on resilience and ingenuity, biotech potatoes are more than a scientific achievement. They represent a new vision for Rwanda\u2019s food systems one where farmers prosper, ecosystems recover, and the quiet hum of bees continues to stitch life across the hills. For Zimurinda, the future looks lighter. For the bees, it may finally be brighter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the misty highlands of Kinigi that span Musanze District in the Northern Province of Rwanda, where volcanic soils have fed generations, 47-year-old farmer Leonidas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1032,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/1032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}