However, fate had other ideas for Hitimana and the good dreams he was whistling about in his sleep have turned sour. Today, the farmer is worried he might be downgraded from his current third Ubudehe category to the first - that of the most vulnerable.
The entire plantation was ravaged by cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), locally known as 'Kabore', leaving all his investment efforts in ruins.
CSBD, a cassava virus disease, causes root rot rendering cassava inedible. The devastating cassava disease also causes loss of cassava root (tuber) production. The disease is said to be the major cassava threat in East Africa.
Hitimana received cassava cuttings from the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) and Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) five months ago as a means to address the issue of Kabore, which had devastated the cassava crop in the Southern Province, mainly Ruhango District, the largest cassava grower in the country.
RAB and MINAGRI believed those varieties were disease-free and resistant.
But accounts from cassava farmers indicate that the new cassava variety that was procured and imported from Uganda has a different and more dangerous disease than 'Kabore'.
