The sub-sector context

Agriculture

Farming is the principal economic activity of 90% of the Rwanda people. About 45% of the total surface of the country is classified as arable land, 18% is rangeland pasture, and 22% is under forest and woodland, the balance being wasteland, lakes, and land used for human settlements, urban areas, roads, etc. In the highlands, population pressure has reduced the average area of the arable land available to about 1.5 ha per household. Agriculture is practiced on all land types, including land of marginal quality and on steep slopes. In large areas of the hill country, however, soils were originally fertile, and the bimodal rainfall makes two crops a year possible, with a third crop grown in the valley bottoms (marais, with fertile pit soils) where irrigation is possible with adequate drainage. Because of the slope, most of the arable land requires soil conservation measures and manuring to maintain natural fertility. Rwanda farmers are well aware of this, however good practices are not always followed for a variety of reasons. Before the turmoil of the 90s, in the good areas and under good farming practices, the farmland available was sufficient to provide food security and some cash income to buy basic necessities to the average household, and to send children to school. In the best export crops growing areas, farmers were better off, their dwellings were of higher quality and better maintained.

Thirteen percent of the arable land is under perennial export crops, essentially coffee and tea, and some pyrethrum. Crops marketed by smallholders include bananas, which is a widely grown staple food and is a major source of cash income, often after processing into beer by rural women. Other crops marketed for cash include sorghum, some beans, peas, maize, fruit and vegetables. Recently, new cash crops have begun to develop. Maracuja (passionfruit), has been developed by national private enterprises that process the fruit into juices that have a good domestic market; horticultural products, such as tomatoes and vegetables, supply an expanding demand from the urban centers; intensive production of cut flowers, and smallholder women production of gooseberry for exports, are examples of the emerging diversification of the cash and export crop sub-sector.

Both cattle and small stock were decimated during the genocide. National cattle herds have been rebuilt more quickly than the small livestock, but their ownership has become more unequal. A large number of cattle are presently found in the Umutara province, due to large herds brought back by the “old-case load” refugees when they returned from Tanzania and Uganda. Umutara’s cattle currently produce 85% of the milk and 45% of the meat traded in Rwanda. Cattle represent 42% of all animals slaughtered at registered abattoirs, goats about 55%, and sheep about 3%. Swine and poultry, including production of intensively grown broilers and eggs, also contribute to domestic meat production. Small stock is present in many smallholder farms and it is primarily a woman activity. Traditionally, livestock has represented an important source of manuring for the smallholders, a way to accumulate capital and to insure the household against risks.

The development of agriculture is critical to sustaining economic recovery, creating employment, and reducing poverty in rural areas. The National Strategy for Agriculture identifies constraints to agricultural productivity and the actions needed to address them. The strategy includes rehabilitation of support infrastructure, rehabilitation of extension services, and promotion of agricultural intensification, with a view to increasing rural incomes, enhancing food security, encouraging private investment and market orientated farmers. The strategy lines include: (i) developing markets for both inputs and crops; (ii) improving soil conservation and management; (iii) developing swamplands in an environmentally sustainable framework; (iv) improving farming methods through research, extension and information services, and intensification of the use of inputs on a financially sustainable basis, (v) supporting farmers’ groups and professional associations; (vi) rural credit and other financial mechanisms for rural-based activities; and (vii) improving storage-and farm-to-market roads.

The land tenure situation is mainly governed by the customary law and traditional practices. Current legislation is fragmentary (a new land act is under formulation), and means of enforcement of western type land legislation are poor or absent. There is a difference between the land on the hillsides and the land on the valley bottoms (marais). Access to the hill land is guaranteed by heritage, a principle accepted by customary law and state enacted law. Until the reform introduced in 1999, only the male sons inherited the land. Now the Law gives the same right to women. The hill land can be rented, exploited, or sold by the owner. The marshes, by decree of July 11 1960, are exclusive property of the State but can be placed at the disposal of the population, the Government reserving its right to take back the marais land distributed to people, subject to paying compensation. The modalities of land acquisition are critical features of the evolving land tenure situation in the country. Cropland space is changing rapidly due to the continuous distribution of properties among several heirs and the creation of new rural dwellings. Land acquisition modes include inheritance, sale, lease, and donation.

Land lease is an increasingly common practice in many areas of the country. Rent payment for leased land can be in kind or cash, the latter form of payment tending to be spread. Land can be leased on a seasonal or annual basis, or even for an unspecified duration. Land in valley bottoms belongs to the State, the peasants are only usufructuaries. The title to use the land can be for a 30-year period, and even longer, but on conditions of continuous use and development of the land by the usufructuary.

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