Benefits, justifications and risks

Environmental status

The project is classified in category “A” because no significant negative environmental impacts are expected. In fact, there are likely to be substantial positive environmental impacts.

Smallholder grown traditional cash crops, coffee bushes in particular, are sometimes planted in overexploited highly eroded hillsides. Being a perennial shrub, which requires mulching among the good husbandry practices, coffee can play a role in soil conservation, if adequate practices are applied. The poor remuneration of coffee growers during the 1990s has caused most smallholders to abandon such good practices. The IFAD project, by providing a stable and more interesting price to growers will contribute to re-establishing good crop coffee husbandry, which will help restoring the potential role of coffee bushes in soil conservation. Similar considerations apply to tea which are also perennial plants. Perennial plants have relatively deep and robust root systems which bird the soil and further enhance soil stability.

The project funded technical assistant services provided to cash crop growers will include the standard recommendations of MINAGRI with respect to soil conservation and anti erosion techniques. The higher farm income, resulting from the project interventions, and the guaranteed credit scheme, are expected to remove some of the farmers’ income and cash-related constraints for adopting such practices.

The project funded feasibility studies of organic conversion of tea and coffee production will establish the technical requirements and the financial viability of adopting such practices. With respect to coffee, in particular, the project funded agricultural research will emphasise IPM and other means to reduce the use of chemicals. If proven feasible, organic conversion will significantly contribute to environmental protection in the tea and coffee growing areas supported by the project.

Most new cash and export crops developed recently in Rwanda also contribute to checking soil erosion. For example, maracuja is a vine, useful for holding the soil where it is planted. Mulberry trees (silk worm production), and other fruit trees can be used to check soil movement. Gooseberries are a native plant in Rwanda, grown on a handkerchief of land, very closely controlled in the family home garden. In addition, the new cash crops are normally grown with little of no use of chemical inputs, which not only helps to develop a market of organic products, but also ensures that incremental production will not be at the expense of pollution of the Rwanda farmer’s fields and ground water resources. Eventually, organic conversion will also be extended to new cash and export crops production, where feasible.

Significant project induced environmental hazards are limited to the impact of the effluent of the new coffee washing stations. This could produce serious damages. The cost estimate of the washing stations includes the plant required to avoid releasing any pollution material from the stations. Consultants employed by the PCU will control that the coffee processing companies comply with the project policy in this respect.