KIGALI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A new ten-year national strategy to scale up agro-forestry was Wednesday unveiled in Rwanda's capital Kigali.
The strategy is aimed to support the East African country to meet the forest restoration of 2 million hectares by 2020.
It is spearheaded by Rwanda Water and Forestry Management Authority in conjunction with the ministry of agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Agroforestry Center.
It is part of the global campaign dubbed Bonn Challenge seeking to restore 150 million hectares of the world's deforested and degraded lands by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
The agroforestry strategy is expected to improve Rwanda's food security and people's livelihoods, while restoring the environment.
Otto Muhinda, assistant representative of FAO in Rwanda, speaking at the event said under the strategy new projects would be designed to scale up agro-forestry.
Muhinda said FAO has spent about 31 million U.S. dollars on agriculture and environmental projects in Rwanda in the past five years with hopes of channeling another 1 million dollars to finance agro-forestry.
Prime Ngabonziza, Director General of Rwanda Water and Forestry Management Authority said the strategy running from 2017-2027 is expected to increase forest coverage by increasing coordination and research as well as improve crop yields and food security.
Agro-forestry currently stands at 2 percent of 29 percent of current forest coverage in Rwanda and there is more space for agro-forestry, he said.
Innocent Bisangwa, environment and climate change specialist at Rwanda's ministry of agriculture, said farmer field schools and the agriculture extension model will be used to scale up agro-forestry. Enditem
