Over the past decade Rwanda has become the symbol of progress in Africa. It has received praise for numerous initiatives to deal with corruption and efforts to modernise its economy. For example, in the World Bank Doing Business 2010, Rwanda is the fastest reforming country in the world, with Rwanda ranking number 11 in the world for starting a business, it now takes an entrepreneur two procedures and three days to start a business – more efficient than the average economy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. However, while much of attention has been on ridding the country of corruption and therefore engendering foreign investment interest, one of the most compelling stories has been that of the process of agricultural transformation.

 Agriculture is an unmovable cornerstone of Rwandan society. Eighty percent of the people depend on the land for their livelihoods. Farmers depend on a unique mixture of geographical landscapes, topography and microclimates. This presents substantial challenges. The land scarcity and the fact that Rwanda has one of the highest population densities in Africa, culminate in farming being conducted by smallholders who own, on average, 0.5 hectares of farmland. Furthermore, as the name The Land of One Thousand Hills suggests, soil erosion is an impending problem with some cultivation occurring on slopes of up to 55%. These factors, combined with the fact that the country is landlocked, with the nearest ports, Mombasa and Dar-Es-Salaam, being over 700 miles away, places constraints on Rwanda’s development and would seem insurmountable for an ordinary person.

Luckily for Rwanda, his President Paul Kagame is no ordinary person. He has built a leadership to not only rid Rwanda of its conflict-ridden history but also to rid it of the shame of hunger and to develop it into a middle income economy by the mid of the century irrespective of the severity of the constraints in place. The country under Paul Kagame’s leadership has put in place a vision to transform the country. This plan is enshrined in Vision 2020 and the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy which guides Rwanda’s development. The agriculture sector is at the core of this vision and will play a big role in its success.

Last 5 Years

With a high population density and a lack of cultivatable un-occupied land, farmer productivity increases are paramount. With this in mind, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources designed the Crop Intensification Program largely driven by the use of input technologies such as improved seeds and fertilizers, elements that were key factors of success in Asia at the pick of the Green Revolution.  However, the Rwandan situation is unique. The use of improved inputs by the farmer could only be translated into profit by mitigating land fragmentation, thus the introduction of the land consolidation policy. Through land consolidation, farmers grow specific crops in a synchronized fashion that improves aggregate productivity while ensuring environmental sustainability. Government organises seeds and fertilizers access, delivering extension services and mobilizing financial support to groups of farmers as opposed to individual scattered farmers. This has greatly reduced the cost and ensures that there is no farmer left behind irrespective of land size. In the past 3 years, the consolidated use of land area under maize, wheat and beans alone increased from 28,788 hectares to 254,000 hectares in 2010.  The results have been substantial and are the main catalyst behind the current levels of high growth in the sector – now at 7.7% growth in 2009/2010.

The use of improved seeds, measured as percentage of agricultural households utilizing inputs, rose from 3% to 55%, respectively.  By encouraging farmers to use improved seeds, Crop Intensification Programme has substantially increased the local demand and the capacity for seed production.  Additionally, the national average fertilizer use has increased from 4 kg, per hectare in 2006 to 24 kg/ha in 2010.  The result of combined input access and increased extension service under land consolidation has had the country’s total production of maize, wheat and cassava triple, while beans production has doubled. 

Importantly, these productivity increases have resulted in import substitution and has allowed Rwanda to move to being a food secure country. This self-sustainability elucidates why Rwanda was not as adversely affected by the food crisis of 2008 than neighbouring countries. Furthermore, the availability of food surplus have allowed Rwanda to look at new export opportunities in these crops, especially for the private sector who before have largely been absent.

Parallel to the Crop Intensification program and equally as important in dealing with poverty, and definitely more powerful in dealing with malnutrition, is the One Cow per Poor Family Program- locally know as the Girinka Program.  This program like many other initiatives in Rwanda has deep roots in the Rwanda culture: where malnutrition in kids is a shame to family and society and where sharing a cow (passing on an offspring to other families) builds very strong society bonds. The Girinka Program, started by the President in 2006 has secured a productive asset in the hands of poor farmers and mitigated child malnutrition with milk drinking.  The program now targets about 350, 000 poor families across the country of whom 92,000 have already received a cow. This program has locally been scored as most successful of all economic uplifting programs at the household level.  The externalities are enormous; besides dealing with malnutrition, farmers have income from sell of extra milk and off springs from the cow, they access manure for their land a factor that has seen crop and livestock very neatly integrated in Rwanda.  The most powerful externality however, is at the society level; a farmer who receives a cow passes on the first female offspring to another needy farmer.  This has built a strong sense of community bonding that Rwanda needs very badly.  Recently, the IFAD President was visiting farmers in Rwanda and one beneficially of a cow from an IFAD supported project proudly showed him his bank book. The President asked him there was anything that IFAD could do to improve his life even more and the farmer said ‘Yes, give a cow to my neighbours who are still waiting their turn”.

Strengthening food security gains and dealing with the challenges of Rwanda’s terrain

Rwanda is now focusing on projects to strengthen these productivity gains and to deal with the constraints presented by its topography and climate. The government has embarked on two ambitious programs: We are looking to irrigate previously under-utilised marshland areas.  Over the last 5 years, 15,000 hectares have been irrigated to allow farmers to optimize rice cultivation - producing two crops a year. The target is to have 40,000 hectares under rice cultivation by 2020. 

We have also initiated a project to increase area available for farming given the very challenging terrain of Rwanda.  The project named Land Husbandly, Water Harvesting and Hillside Irrigation Project combines all these elements into one of the most ambitious projects the agriculture sector has ever taken on.  When complete the project will bring 35,000 hectares of previous barren land into agriculture and will irrigate over 12,000 hectares on hillsides.  The project has already been initiated in two districts and one year later, farmers are set to receive a bumper harvest having previously given up on farming on this land.  This project is now in 17 districts but it will be extended across the country until every land is protected against soil loss. 

While agricultural export production represents a small part of aggregate production, Rwanda has exploited the high quality characteristics of its coffee and tea sector to increase incomes for small holder farmers in these sectors.  Space limitations do not allow me to go into the details of Rwanda’s emerging cash crop potential in coffee, tea and horticulture.

Part of Vision 2020’s conceptualization was to change the policy environment to engender a pro-reform ideology in government and society. In the agriculture sector, the government has led on key regional and global initiatives. For example, Rwandan agriculture prioritization has meant that it leads the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in terms of policy commitments to utilizing agriculture growth to eradicate poverty malnutrition. With the goal of allocating 10% of the national budget to agriculture, Rwanda has moved from allocation 3.5% in 2007 to 7% in 2010 excluding infrastructure. Furthermore, Rwanda hold herself to very high standards and leads on pushing improved policy dialogue, review and accountability mechanisms within the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) framework. This could not have been better demonstrated than last year’s post CAADP investment Plan conference held in Rwanda to mobilise resources for the agriculture sector.  Being the first ever conference of its kind, it set the stage for peer review processes in agriculture, investment plan development and is now used as a benchmark for GAFSP financing of the CAADP.

Additionally, in relation to foreign aid, Rwanda, and the agriculture sector, have been at the forefront of debates in how to deliver aid. Rwanda’s coordination with its development partners is lauded internationally, with the Working Party for Aid Effectiveness (OECD) and other donors sighting Rwanda as a model for improving aid delivery through its ability to operationalize budget support and coordinate with donors. For example the agriculture sector ahs for the last three years exceed the CAADP stipulated growth of 6% even though it has not yet reached the 10% investment requirement. These multi-sectoral efforts have been a major catalyst to alter the trajectory of the country.

Yet key challenges remain for Rwanda. The Millennium Development Goal for 2015 of halving poverty headcount and extreme poverty is round the corner.  Rwanda is coming from a deep poverty trap of a baseline of 41.3% (the proportion of those in extreme poverty) in 2000. To meet the MDG target for 2015 of only one-fifth of society being under extreme poverty needs extra ordinary efforts that are enshrined in the hopes and promise of the recently concluded elections in Rwanda – economic development and prosperity. 

To meet the challenge, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources is prioritizing initiatives that facilitate the growth of those in rural areas most in need. The Crop Intensification Programme has further prioritized increase in productivity by developing an input voucher system to ensure that there is no farmer left behind and to improve the farmer’s chance of success. Post harvest handling and storage strategies will be firmly committed to reduce losses from the current 35% to 15% and to enhance quality and marketability of surplus for farmers.  Furthermore, the One Cow Programme is set to expand to reach those most in need over the next three years.  But more importantly, LWH with support from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) will be able to reach hundreds of farmers that had given up on the hope of food security or any form of income. 

Rwanda is a country that represents great hope for its people.  It basically qualifies the old saying “where there is a will, there is a way”.  Rwanda’s ability to transform itself from a conflict torn fragile state to a country that boasts of peace and security of all its citizens, demonstrated food security, facilitate a growing exports markets, lead regionally in aid management and on governance issues is laudable.  The reforms and efforts in the agriculture sector are a major part of this transformation. Many of the reforms are yet to bear fruit, however, given the progress so far, the emphasis and initiatives put in place; agriculture will be the driver towards meeting MDG 1. And if there was any country that is up for the challenge, it would be Rwanda.

Agnes kalibata is rwanda’s ministerof agriculture 

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