Project area, gender situation, target group

The Project Area

At the request of the GOR, the project area includes four Provinces: Kibuye, Gikongoro, Kigali-Ngali, and three districts of Kibungo. The territory (see map no 1) includes the crest of hill chains that runs parallel to lake Kivu in a north-south direction at an altitude over 2 000 m, and the central plateau running east of the crest at an average altitude of about 1 700 m. The entire area is a series of hills, between 1 500 and 2 200 m high. Most hills have rather steep slopes, and are separated one from the other by narrow valleys, often of poorly drained peat soils. Soils were originally fertile soils of volcanic origin across most of the area. However, many areas now have low natural fertility due to over exploitation, deforestation, and erosion. Seven agro-ecological zones are found in the area. About 2/3 of the total territory is included in the high altitude high rainfall agro-ecological zones of the Congo-Nil crest and the Central Plateau.

Rainfall is bimodal, ranging from 1 250 mm in the lower and drier areas, to 1 700 mm at the higher altitudes. Average annual temperature is 19 to 22 degrees C, dropping considerably at night during the 22°C rains. Two crops a year are normally produced, with a third one also grown in the valley bottoms after drainage. Population density is high (about 2.6 million people, 500 000 rural households). Farmers crop very small plots of land, seldom left fallow because the total land holdings at their disposal (on average 1 ha per household, consisting of several plots in different sites) is just sufficient to make a living.

Ninety per cent of farmers in the project area are poor smallholders, land holdings of more than 1.5 ha are less than one tenth of the total. The farming system includes food crops of various types, depending on altitude. Maize, beans, sweet potatoes and bananas are grown at lower altitudes, and maize, wheat, peas, and potatoes are common as altitude increases. Coffee growing is widespread in the smallholder farming system. Tea is more common at higher altitude, grown by farmers located within convenient distance from the existing factories. Fruit and vegetables farming is beginning to become a significant feature of the farming system, particularly in areas well connected to larger urban centers. Horticultural products occurs in the valley bottoms, where drainage and irrigation facilities have been installed. Most farmers keep some livestock, the less poor have one or two cows, women keep one or two small ruminants, some poultry and also pigs.

Coffee. Table 3 shows the number of districts officially classified as “caffeicoles” in the project area, and the percentage of coffee planters in each province. Not all of the project area is equally well suited for coffee production. The best coffee areas are in the Kibuye provinces, with yields between 1.2 and 1.5 tons of café parche per ha. This area produces high altitude, potentially very high quality coffee. In the eastern part of Gikongoro, there is also good potential for high altitude and good quality production, and current average yields being about 1 000 kg/ha. In Kibungo and Kigali-Ngali, conditions are less optimal, and average coffee yields are about 700 and 800 kg/ha. Nevertheless, there is also potential for producing good quality cherries and better yields in the southeastern part of Kibungo, and in the higher sites of Kigali-Ngali.

Table 3

In 1999, a total of 133 000 coffee growers, 27% of the total number of rural households, were recorded by OCIR-Café in the four provinces. These planters produced 5 400 tons of café parche, about 30% of the national total. The present distribution of coffee bushes does not reflect site comparative advantages or farmer preferences, because coffee was not a free choice of the growers until recently. Almost all bushes planted were under compulsory coffee growing schemes. The varieties planted are mostly of the traditional Burbon type, with the exception of a small area replanted recently to high yielding dwarf varieties by some well-off farmers who responded to the advice of the government extension officers. Approximately one quarter of coffee bushes are over 30 years old. Many plots that were abandoned during the war need rehabilitation. Some are hardly tended due to the very low level of prices. Farmers sell café parche to private traders, the cherries are de-pulped manually at their farms or processed with simple hand operated machines owned by groups of growers.

The average size of a coffee plot is largest in Gikongoro with about 300 bushes per planter, followed by Kibungo with 240 bushes, Kigali-Ngali with 150 and Kibuye with 125. However, some of the wealthier extended families may control up to 3 000 bushes in several plots. Formally all the plots would belong to the head of the extended family who control the entire income, even if the individual plots are allocated to his children who tend the plots. In Kibuye, about 400 of these farmers have formed a coffee grower association that is very active and energetically run. Other coffee grower associations exist in Kibuye, Gikongoro, and Kigali-Ngali, with membership including very small coffee growers as well as growers that may control up to about 1 ha of coffee in several plots.

In Gikongoro, the most frequent coffee plot is hardly 0.14 ha on average, less than 10% of the total land cropped during a year, when account is taken of the double cropping of seasonal crops. In the other provinces, the share of the coffee plot in the most frequent total land holding is even less. Poor farmers have generally some 150 bushes and very poor farmers may have 50 bushes, or sometimes none. For poor households, coffee has never been the main source of livelihood, and with the present low farm-gate prices it is no longer an important source of cash income.

Tea. Tea is grown by smallholders and in industrial estates at high altitude in Gikongoro and Kibuye provinces, and transported for processing to three factories located at Mata and Kitabi in Gikongoro, and at Gisovu in Kibuye province. A total of 4 100 ha is planted, 36% of the total tea area in Rwanda. About 3 000 ha are in Gikongoro, and a little over 1 150 ha in Kibuye. The area planted by industrial estates is about 2 200 ha in the two provinces. There are four OCIR-Thé industrial estates, three in Gikongoro, including the estate at Nshili where there is no factory, and one estate in Kibuye.

Smallholder tea covers a total of 1 900 ha, planted by 7 200 HHs in Gikongoro, and 2 500 HHs in Kibuye, respectively 7% and 3% of the rural HHs in the two provinces. The average size of the smallholder tea plots is 0.22 ha. Yields vary depending on the weather and location. Between 1.0 and 1.2 tons/ha of tea is bush/ha produced in smallholder plots, and 1.3 to 1.5 tons/ha in the industrial estates. Yields are low in both industrial estates and smallholders, largely due to inadequate supplies of fertilizers and to less than optimal cultural practices. Yield increases of 30-50% are perfectly possible, with more inputs and better care of the bushes. The experience with cooperative tea farming in Rwanda, is outside the project area. In Mulindi, Byumba province, tea is grown by cooperatives of planters who have been allocated plots of 0.70 ha per cooperative members. For a long time, these plots recorded an average of 1.3 tons of tea per hectare. However, in 2001 the cooperatives have succeeded in increasing the average yield to a peak at 2.5 tons, through a combination of good weather and timely and adequate doses of fertilizers made available by the private management of the SORWATHE.

Other Cash Crops. According to the socio-economic investigation undertaken by IFAD before project formulation, smallholders in the project area do not have the same perception of the concept of “cash crop” as government officials and project planners. For smallholders, any crop which they can sell in the market is a “cash crop”, and this includes crops that are their basic food supplies, as well as crops produced (almost) exclusively for the market. The distinction of cash crops vs. food crops is artificial. Maize and bananas, as well as banana and sorghum beer, are traditionally marketed by smallholders, the latter being an important source of cash revenue for women. Many farmers in Kigali-Ngali are engaged in horticulture production consisting of tomatoes, onions, carrots, cabbages, and other types of vegetables. Some of this production is consumed, but most is sold to the Kigali and other urban markets. There is inadequate statistical data on this activity to report how many households are involved and to which social stratum they belong.

Fruit production is also rapidly expanding in the project area, particularly in Kigali-Ngali. Passion fruit (maracuja), in particular, has a good market. Yields are about 20 tons/ha, no chemicals are used, and prices paid to growers for export quality is Frw 250/kg. A smallholder planting 0.02 ha of passion fruit may earn a net income of about USD 70, twice as much as from 0.1 ha of coffee. The fruits are purchased by traders, and also by small and medium size private enterprises that produce excellent juice, some of which is exported. Air export of fresh passion fruit has also begun. In an area in the north of Kigali-Ngali up to 30% of the farmers have planted a small plot of passion fruit. In three districts of this province, a total of about 110 ha of passion fruit are grown, producing 2 200 tons. The absence of technical support to passion fruit growers is a problem, there are signs of emerging difficulties due to poor control of the quality of planting material, and to pest and plant diseases.

One of the new crops is Cape gooseberry, which are a native plant in Rwanda. A single woman entrepreneur has begun to export from Byumba, marketing the produce of an association of about 500 women who cultivate the berries. This activity has been extended in Kigali-Ngali involving an additional 400 women farmers. The women planted the crop in their home gardens. The harvest is collected, selected, cleaned and packed for air shipment to Europe and is also purchase by a farm factory in Uganda. The quantity actually exported to Europe is 500 kg per week, fetching a price in Europe of about USD 5/kg. Shipment to Uganda are about 2 times per week. Women producers are paid USD 0.9/kg, their average income being of the order of USD 40 per annum from growing gooseberry on 0.05 ha. Cut flowers are also produced in Kigali-Ngali. This is essentially a large-scale industrial sophisticated and intensive glasshouse activity. It generates significant employment among women, but is not a small farmer business.

In the parts of the project area that are near to the main consumption and export outlets and better connected with transport infrastructure, there is scope to significantly increase production and export of passion fruit, particularly concentrate juices of fresh gooseberries and of other high quality tropical fruits. The opening up of regular airfreight traffic from Rwanda to Europe and to the Arabian peninsula states via Uganda has created new opportunities. In these activities, smallholders will benefit as primary producers. However, they will have to either acquire the management and technical skills, and to master the resources required to develop modern processing and marketing activities of their own, or sell their crops to private entrepreneurs who are capable at providing and manage the critical processing and marketing of the farm produce.