The Rwandan agrarian and land sector modernisation:confronting macro performance with lived experiences on the ground

Rwanda has embarked on an ambitious policy package to modernise and professionalise the agrarian and land sector. Its reform fits into a broader call – supported by major international donors – to implement a Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. After 10 years of implementation, there is increased production output and value-addition in commercialised commodity chains. These are promising results. However, poverty reduction, particularly in more recent years, seems limited. Moreover, micro-level evidence from the field calls into question the long-term sustainability of the agricultural and land sector reform. In this article, a group of researchers, having engaged in in-depth qualitative research in a variety of settings and over an extended period, bring together their main research results and combine their key findings to challenge the dominant discourse on Rwanda as a model for development

Statistics versus livelihoods: questioning Rwanda’s pathway out of poverty

Recent statistics indicate that poverty in Rwanda decreased impressively between 2006 and 2014. This seems to confirm Rwanda’s developmental progress. This article however argues for a more cautious interpretation of household survey data. The authors contrast macro-level statistical analysis with in-depth field research on livelihood conditions. Macro-economic numbers provide interesting information, however differentiated evidence is required to understand how poverty ‘works’ in everyday life. On the basis of the Rwandan case study, the authors conclude that because of the high political stakes of data collection and analysis, and given that relations of power influence the production of knowledge on poverty, cross-checking is crucial

LES PETITS AGRICULTEURS FACE À LA MODERNISATION RURALE DANS LA PROVINCE DU NORD DU RWANDA : CONSOLIDATION DE L’USAGE DES TERRES, DISTRIBUTION D’INTRANTS AMÉLIORÉS ET SÉCURITÉ ALIMENTAIRE

In 2007, Rwanda embarked on an ambitious agricultural modernization program aimed at increasing the productivity of the country‘s primary sector. The most important policy instrument adopted for the aim of agricultural modernization is the Crop Intensification Program (CIP). The CIP is based on four axes: the consolidation of land use, the distribution of improved inputs (chemical fertilizers and improved seeds), extension services and post-harvest handling and storage systems. Based on a mixed quantitative-qualitative research in two settings of study in the Northern Province of Rwanda, this paper ails at exploring the effects of the CIP on the strategies of natural resources management and food security of Rwandan smallholder farmers. Data analysis shows that agricultural modernization policies take place in an environment already dense with economic and ecological relations, demanding a process of adaption to the producers who take part in the program. This article is concerned with ways in which such adaptations may cause partial failings of the food entitlement systems in two settings of study. Through a discussion of the impact of modernization policy on producers’ food security, we aim at highlighting the main constraints faced by smallholder farmers in the context of the CI

The Exemplary Citizen on the Exemplary Hill: The Production of Political Subjects in Contemporary Rural Rwanda

Since the end of civil war and genocide in 1994, the Rwandan government has embarked on an ambitious plan to reshape the rural setting. Through a strategy of agrarian modernization, the Rwandan government is reorganizing rural space and production in order to foster economic growth. This article looks at how this spatial and productive reconfiguration contributes to the production of political subjects in post-genocide Rwanda, and how this is constitutive of the political power of government. (1) First, we point to the way in which the state authorities’ discursive practices instrumentalize the concept of ‘exemplary citizenship’ to reinforce policy adherence. (2) Second, we analyse how the reconfiguration of access to productive resources is intertwined with the reinforcement of the state’s authority. Hidden behind the discourse of modernization and rationalization, the reorganization of space helps central authorities to gain a greater degree of control over rural settings. (3) Finally, we analyse the way in which the reorganization of rural space contributes to the construction of political subjectivity. Political subjects are defined through adherence to or rejection of the government’s rhetoric of economic development and good citizenship as redefining moments of public life

Modernizing Agriculture through a ‘new’ Green Revolution: The Limits of the Crop Intensification Program in Rwanda

Pendant les dernières dix années, les secteurs agricoles des pays Africains ont connu un nombre important d’initiatives pour la promotion d’une ‘nouvelle’ Révolution Verte pour le continent. A cause de la faible productivité de leurs activités agricoles, en fait, il est demandé aux petits producteurs africains de rattraper leur désavantage par rapport aux pays de la Révolution Verte. Cet article est une contribution au débat sur la nouvelle Révolution Verte en Afrique. L’article analyse le Programme d’Intensification des Cultures rwandais (Crop Intensification Program, CIP) en tant qu’étude de cas de l’application du modèle de la Révolution Verte. La discussion présentée dans cet article dérive d’un effort de recherche à trois niveaux : macro, meso et micro. L’analyse révèle que le CIP ne prend pas en considérations les résultats des expériences précédentes de Révolution Verte, en particulier pour ce qui concerne des questions de différentiation sociale, de durabilité environnementale et de création et diffusion des connaissances.Over the past decade, African agriculture sectors have been the object of numerous initiatives advancing a ‘new’ Green Revolution for the continent. The low productivity of African small-holders is attributed to the low use of modern, improved agricultural inputs. In short, African countries are expected to catch up with the Green Revolution in other parts of the world. This paper is a contribution to the debate on the new African Green Revolution. We analyse the Rwandan Crop Intensification Program (CIP) as a case-study of the application of the African Green Revolution model. The paper is based on research at the macro, meso and micro level. We argue that the CIP fails to draw lessons from previous Green Revolution experiences in terms of its effects on social differentiation, on ecological sustainability, and on knowledge exchange and creation

The reorganisation of rural space in Rwanda: Habitat concentration, land consolidation, and collective marshland cultivation

The chapter by An Ansoms, Giuseppe Cioffo, Chris Huggins and Jude Murison, (‘The reorganisation of rural space in Rwanda: Habitat concentration, land consolidation, and collective marshland cultivation’), builds upon the analysis of Huggins’ chapter. It further explores the influence of land use regulation policies on land rights and livelihoods of smallholder farmers living in the rural setting. The vision of the Rwandan government is to promote a professional, market-driven and efficient agricultural sector, which requires a reorganization of human habitat, land tenure, and cultivation systems. The government is putting in place the legal foundations and is building a capacity to implement these policies. However, these ambitions are at contrast with current Rwandan habitat patterns of scattered homesteads across the country’s hillside, and with practices of most smallholders, oriented towards risk reduction, for example through cultivating multiple crops, and through exploiting multiple plots. The government’s policy suits a small group of larger, wealthier farmers who often belong to the local elite, but the possibilities for most smallholders are shrinking in the growing space of ‘modernity’. As a result, the outcome of land use regulation policies is similar to more straightforward cases of involuntary land transfers: smallholders losing access to land and join a class of unskilled labourers in a context of limited rural and urban employment opportunities

Modernising agriculture through a ‘new’ Green Revolution: the limits of the Crop Intensification Programme in Rwanda

Over the past decade, African agriculture sectors have been the object of numerous initiatives advancing a ‘new’ Green Revolution for the continent. The low productivity of African smallholders is attributed to the low use of modern, improved agricultural inputs. In short, African countries are expected to catch up with the Green Revolution in other parts of the world. This paper is a contribution to the debate on the new African Green Revolution. We analyse the Rwandan Crop Intensification Programme (CIP) as a case study of the application of the African Green Revolution model. The paper is based on research at the macro, meso and micro levels. We argue that the CIP fails to draw lessons from previous Green Revolution experiences in terms of its effects on social differentiation, on ecological sustainability, and on knowledge exchange and creation

Navigating research ethics in the absence of an ethics review board: The importance of space for sharing

Ethics review committees have become a common institution in English-speaking research communities, and are now increasingly being adopted in a variety of research environments. In light of existing debates on the aptness of ethics review boards for assessing research work in the social sciences, this article investigates the ways in which researchers navigate issues of research ethics in the absence of a formal review procedure or of an ethics review board. Through the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, the article questions the overall utility of ethics review boards. Highlighting the importance of space for sharing, the authors argue for the development of a new type of structure that takes into account researchers’ ‘ethos of responsibility’ as an adequate ethical compass for research in the social sciences