Rwanda has launched a web based system expected to ease access to information and data on availability of public agricultural land by private sector investors.

The platform known as Agriculture Land Information System (Alis) will allow anyone who has access to the Internet to quickly retrieve online information on agriculture available for private sector investment.

The Ministry of Agriculture, says more than 24,000 hectares of public land was available for purchase on lease to the private sector but potential investors struggle to find information on land. Officials familiar with the plans say the process of identifying and accessing suitable land sometimes takes up to a year or longer, slowing down investment.

Melanie Bittle, Chief of Party at Private Sector Driven Agriculture, an initiative funded by USAid says investor access to information has been one of the major hurdles holding up private sector participation in agricultural development.

“All this information that you can see on the system, was sitting on people’s computers,” she said.

According to Ms Bittle, access to the right information involved a lot of bureaucracy, a result of various institutions in the chain.

She added that sometimes potential investors would not find the suitable land when already in the field.

Ms Bittle says an initial survey on parcels that were 10 hectares and above found out that about 140 of 496 parcels studied were idle.

“This is an opportunity for government and smallholder farmers to give that land to investors who can use them for commercial production,” she explained.

The second phase will see six million plots of privately owned land added onto the system next year. Satellite images will also be added.

The software development cost Rwf15 million and the platform will also be available as a mobile app on smart phones.

However, experts say the platform uptake will require other investments like publicising the online system, as it mainly targets foreign investors.

Hervé Rutagengwa, a software developer and entrepreneur says while development of software and implementation might be an issue, branding was another thing. “They will have to market and brand the application online. The success will depend on marketing level of the application,” he said.

The web based platform will also need to be updated as the land use changes, in future to include information such as roads infrastructure, irrigation systems and electricity which increase the land value.

Agriculture contributed to 33 per cent of the GDP in quarter two making the sector which employs 70 per cent of the population central to the Rwandan economy.

According to the State Minister for Agriculture and Animal resources, Fulgence Nsengiyumva, there are 1.4 million hectares of arable land in the country with 6 million plots but lack of information on available public agricultural land was slowing private investment and commercialisation in the sector that is still dominated by subsistence farming.

In future smallholder farmers could benefit to be linked to investors as their land which may not be in use will be known easily, said Ms Bittle