Does contract farming improve Cassava production, price determination and farmer’s income in Ruhango district in Rwanda?

This study analyses the impact of contract farming on cassava production, price determination and farmer’s income in Ruhango district in Rwanda. It uses a participatory assessment method using an interactive tool commonly named “it takes two to tango”. Data were collected from cassava farmers and a Cassava Processing Plant employees. The findings show that the contract farming did not contribute to cassava production improvement. The contract farming did not help in the availability and accessibility of agricultural inputs such as planting material and fertilizer used in cassava farming. Findings of the study also show that the contract farming did not lead to mutual cassava price determination. Regarding the income, farmers indicated that the contract farming did not lead to the increase in income. The Cassava Processing Plant should support the farmers in improving cassava production through the training on land preparation, management of the planting material, fertilizing, cropping, weeding and harvesting. The price of fresh cassava should be fully determined together by the farmers and the Cassava Processing Plant. Improvement in cassava production and mutual price determination should help the farmers to have consistent income. Keywords: Contract farming, Cassava production, Cassava Processing Plant, Rwand

Sustainability implications of Rwanda’s Vision 2050 long-term development strategy

Improving livelihoods in Rwanda requires overcoming food insecurity and malnutrition. Vision 2050 is Rwanda’s long-term development strategy, yet little is known about its potential trade-offs for the country’s biodiversity, forest cover, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Scenario analysis can provide insights into how to achieve such goals more sustainably. Here, we use the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) Calculator, a simple integrated assessment tool, to explore potential sustainability implications by 2050 through two scenarios: (1) Current Trends and (2) Vision 2050. The Vision 2050 pathway incorporates components of the government’s long-term development strategy and associated national agricultural policy targets. It includes greater increases in crop productivity and decreases in post-harvest losses, and shifts to more sustainable diets, compared to the Current Trends pathway. Results show that the Vision 2050 pathway would, relative to Current Trends, lead to a greater decrease in agricultural land area and an increase in non-forested natural land-cover area, with consequent decreases in GHG emissions from agriculture, increases in carbon sequestration, and increases in the share of land that can support biodiversity conservation. Shifts to a healthier diet in the Vision 2050 pathway would only be compatible with national agricultural priorities if these diets favor consumption of foods that underpin sustainable livelihoods in Rwanda, such as beans, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, banana, and corn. We discuss the potential for integrated land-use planning and adoption of agroecological farming practices to help Rwanda achieve food security, livelihood, biodiversity, and climate mitigation goals in tandem

How can diverse national food and land-use priorities be reconciled with global sustainability targets? Lessons from the FABLE initiative

There is an urgent need for countries to transition their national food and land-use systems toward food and nutritional security, climate stability, and environmental integrity. How can countries satisfy their demands while jointly delivering the required transformative change to achieve global sustainability targets? Here, we present a collaborative approach developed with the FABLE—Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land, and Energy—Consortium to reconcile both global and national elements for developing national food and land-use system pathways. This approach includes three key features: (1) global targets, (2) country-driven multi-objective pathways, and (3) multiple iterations of pathway refinement informed by both national and international impacts. This approach strengthens policy coherence and highlights where greater national and international ambition is needed to achieve global goals (e.g., the SDGs). We discuss how this could be used to support future climate and biodiversity negotiations and what further developments would be needed

Intégration spatiale des marchés ruraux et urbains de la banane à cuire dans le Sud-Est de la Province du Sud du Rwanda

Integration of Rural and Urban Cooking Banana Markets in the South-East of Rwanda Southern Province. This study consists of the analysis of spatial integration of rural and urban markets of cooking banana iin the South-East of Southern province of Rwanda. It uses time series of 2001-2006 period resulting from a survey on agricultural products commercialization in rural and urban markets. The analysis used the methods of co-integration and error correction model (ECM). The results of the study show that there is, in general, weak price transmission between rural and urban markets of cooking banana. Hence rural and urban markets of cooking banana are weakly integrated. The weak integration of markets means that there exist unexploited opportunities of arbitration that would have led to the creation of "geographical monopolies" because, on each rural market, there are traders who collect the cooking banana to sell it only on the same market. This weak spatial integration of rural and urban markets can result from poor commercial infrastructures (roads and communication infrastructures) and the lack of information on market (supply, demand and price). It would be necessary to develop and improve the commercial infrastructures for improving the spatial integration of cooking banana rural and urban markets in the South-East of the Southern province of Rwanda. Market integration can in turn lead to the specialization of producers of cooking banana and to the increase of cooking banana production

IMPACT OF CONTRACT FARMING ON THE INCOME OF SMALLHOLDER DAIRY FARMERS FROM NYAGATARE DISTRICT IN THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF RWANDA

The demand for dairy milk and its products is projected to increase significantly in the developing countries by the year 2030. Globally, close to 6 billion people consume milk and other dairy products due to rising earnings, population expansion, urbanization, and dietary changes. The projected increase in demand for dairy milk and its products thus requires enhanced productivity by the dairy farmers. However, dairy farming is relatively capital intensive which requires dairy farmers to have disposal income to run the venture. Contract farming is gradually being embraced in Rwanda as a viable option to help farmers increase dairy productivity. The impact of contract farming on dairy farmers’ incomes is however not well documented in the Rwandan context. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the impact of contract farming on smallholder dairy farmers’ income in Rwanda among smallholders’ dairy farmers in Nyagatare District. Following the stratification and purposive sampling of two sectors, random sampling of two villages from each of those sectors allowed for the systematic and purposive sampling of representative households and farmers. Data from 214 smallholder dairy farmers were collected using structured interviews and document reviews. The multivariate logistic analysis and propensity score matching was used for data analysis in Stata Version 15. The findings showed that smallholder dairy farmers adopting contract farming earned on average 135,000 RWF (135$) more than their non-adopter counterparts. Further, contract farming was found to have a significant positive impact on income among smallholder dairy farmers in Nyagatare district. However, the impact of contract farming on farmer incomes could be further augmented by increasing the heads of cattle owned per farmer, to at least more than 30. Government intervention is one way to achieve this. The government, in collaboration with businesses like Heifer International, can give heifers to smallscale dairy farmers

Effect of Sheep Manure and Phosphorus Fertiliser on Productivity of Snap Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in Northern Rwanda

Aims: Snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) productivity is low in Rwanda. Investigations were carried out to assess the productivity of Snap bean using pot experiments. Methodology: The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with seven (7) treatments: Compost (T0), Cow manure (T1), Sheep manure (T2), Compost with diammonium phosphate (DAP), DAP alone (T3), Cow manure with DAP (T4), Sheep manure with DAP (T5) and control (T6) on Andisol and Oxisol replicated three (3) times. Results: The results showed that the pod yield was the highest in Andisol (2.39 tha-1) and the application of sheep manure significantly (P<.001) increased the leaf area, the number of leaves (P = .01) and the plant height (P= .01). The number of pods, the pod weight and the total pod yield were also significantly (P<.001) different between the fertilizer treatments and the soil types. Treatments with DAP (T3, T4 and T5) showed better development of the leaf area (231.50 cm2, 221.30 cm2 and 231.80 cm2 respectively), increased the number of leaves (9.67, 9.83 and 10.17 per plant respectively), the plant height (270.80 cm, 266.70 cm and 271.70 cm respectively), the number of pods (11.17, 11.33 and 13.33 per plant), the pod weight (10.68, 10.98 and 12.11 g plant-1) and the total pod yield (2.44 tha-1, 2.51 tha-1 and 3.31 tha-1 respectively). Agronomic efficiency (AE) was the highest in Andisol (5.17 kg of snap bean pod yield per kg nitrogen applied) and in pots that received sheep manure combined with DAP (6.52 kg of snap bean pod yield per kg nitrogen applied). Conclusion: Use of sheep manure and DAP could be a potential option for fertilisation of snap bean in Northern Rwanda

IMPACT OF CONTRACT FARMING ON THE INCOME OF SMALLHOLDER DAIRY FARMERS FROM NYAGATARE DISTRICT IN THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF RWANDA

The demand for dairy milk and its products is projected to increase significantly in the developing countries by the year 2030. Globally, close to 6 billion people consume milk and other dairy products due to rising earnings, population expansion, urbanization, and dietary changes. The projected increase in demand for dairy milk and its products thus requires enhanced productivity by the dairy farmers. However, dairy farming is relatively capital intensive which requires dairy farmers to have disposal income to run the venture. Contract farming is gradually being embraced in Rwanda as a viable option to help farmers increase dairy productivity. The impact of contract farming on dairy farmers’ incomes is however not well documented in the Rwandan context. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the impact of contract farming on smallholder dairy farmers’ income in Rwanda among smallholders’ dairy farmers in Nyagatare District. Following the stratification and purposive sampling of two sectors, random sampling of two villages from each of those sectors allowed for the systematic and purposive sampling of representative households and farmers. Data from 214 smallholder dairy farmers were collected using structured interviews and document reviews. The multivariate logistic analysis and propensity score matching was used for data analysis in Stata Version 15. The findings showed that smallholder dairy farmers adopting contract farming earned on average 135,000 RWF (135$) more than their non-adopter counterparts. Further, contract farming was found to have a significant positive impact on income among smallholder dairy farmers in Nyagatare district. However, the impact of contract farming on farmer incomes could be further augmented by increasing the heads of cattle owned per farmer, to at least more than 30. Government intervention is one way to achieve this. The government, in collaboration with businesses like Heifer International, can give heifers to smallscale dairy farmers

Does credit utilization lead to increasing farm outcome? a micro-perspective of tea production from Rwanda

Credit is a crucial factor for tea growers to pay for physical farm inputs mainly input fertilizers, research and development of high yielding tea clones and labour in order to improve the production of green tea leaf and to meet factories’ demand for raw materials. However, mismanagement of accessed credits by farmers has been reported among the snags affecting the sector development. The study analyzed the determinants and impact of credit utilization on farm income among smallholder tea growers in Nyaruguru District, Rwanda. Crosssectional tea household level data were collected from 358 farmers randomly selected from tea cooperatives. The credit utilization and causal effect were estimated using the Endogenous Switching Regression model. Results showed a positive and significant relationship between credit utilization and tea farm income. Precisely, the causal effect of credit is a 7% increase in tea income for farmers who utilised credit for tea production, while its potential effect is up to a 55% decrease in tea income for those who divert credit for out-off tea production uses. Furthermore, training on good agricultural practices and credit management, cost of farm inputs, labour and access to group credit significantly influence utilization of credit for tea production. However, the size of credit (cash) and off-farm businesses significantly increase the diversion of credit and level of tea farm income. Tea farmers are encouraged to use tea credits for planned projects. Sensitizing farmers to procure farm input fertilizers in bulk through cooperatives should be vigorously pursued to discourage credit diversion. Key words: tea credits, tea farming households, farm income, endogenous switching regressio

Trees For Food Security-2 Project, Rwanda Highlights

The ‘Developing integrated options and accelerating scaling up of agroforestry for improved food security and resilient livelihoods in Eastern Africa’ project also known as Trees for Food Security phase 2 (T4FS-2) is an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) funded project aimed at improving food security and smallholder livelihoods through the widespread implementation of appropriate locally adapted agroforestry practices in key agricultural landscapes of Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia