Project area, gender situation, target group

Potential role of traditional cash crops for poverty reduction in the project area

Coffee growers are classified in Rwanda according to the number of bushes in their plot. In the project area, one tenth of the planters have less than 50 bushes, 60% between 50 and 150 bushes, 25% between 150 and 250 bushes, and 5% more than 250 bushes. Under the prevailing size of holdings and prices, the gross income from coffee is not very large. At the current price (Frw 200/kg of café parche) the monetary value of the annual production of 150 bushes would be around USD 25-30 in the best yielding areas. In lower yielding areas, a farmer’s annual earnings would be around USD 10-15 from the same number of trees. Farmers with less trees would earn correspondingly less.

Most poor smallholder farmer have about 1.1 ha of land and 150 coffee bushes. In order to increase the income of these HHs from the present level to near the threshold of poverty, the project should be able to provide an annual extra net income of the order of USD 80 from coffee. This is possible, through a combination of higher producer prices, a minimum of 250 plants on a 0.1 ha plot, better crop yields, production of top quality cherries, adequate industrial processing, and innovative marketing strategies and methods. Very poor coffee planter HHs could increase their cash income by about USD 30 as a result of participation in the project. This would not be sufficient to raise them to the threshold of poverty but would made possible a significant improvement.

Smallholder tea is only grown in areas within convenient distance of a tea factory. Growers gross income from 0.22 ha of tea is about USD 120 per annum, to which cash costs of about USD 50 must be deducted resulting in net cash earnings of about USD 70. This is not only better than having 150 coffee bushes, but offers the considerable advantage of representing a continuous, regular, cash inflow during the year.. There is considerable scope for increasing tea production in the project area, with a good market for the potentially excellent quality tea that the high altitude hills can produce. There is also considerable scope for significantly increasing, in due course, the price paid to growers.