Rwanda (Continued from cover)
under the age of five have had their growth stunted by malnutrition. The study also found that the people who grow food are far more likely to go hungry than their urban counterparts. In fact, the more remote the location, the more likely people are to be short of food. CCA’s efforts are focused on small scale rural producers. Farmers are encouraged to meet household consumption first through rice, maize and vegetable production, securing a good supply of nutritious staples. The remaining food is sold through co-operatives, increasing the availability of food for other households in the area and providing cash income to farmers. Rural families are also encouraged to raise goats for milk and meat and to contribute organic inputs for crop production. CCA’s first efforts in Rwanda started in 2008. Working with UGAMA, a training and development organization that specializes in co-operatives, CCA launched a small project with three co-operatives producing rice, maize (corn), soybeans and cassava— a starchy root crop. It was mostly simple agronomy—better seeds, fertilizer, and storage, but it met with startling success. Farmers reported dramatic yield increases— as much as 600 per cent. Diogène Nyandwi’s experience is fairly typical. For the 35-year-old rice farmer, the project made a huge difference. “Thanks to the trainings in farming techniques that I received from UGAMA, my yields increased from three tons to seven tons per hectare. Because of high production and access to a good and stable market, I was able to build a house and get married. If the co-operative didn’t come along, I could have been poor.” Maize producer Joséphine Kayisharaza credits access to drying equipment, acquired by her co-operative through the project, with improving her returns from farming. In Rwanda, as in many other countries in the South, nearly 25 per cent of staple crops, including rice, maize and soybeans, are lost to spoilage. By drying production to a level where food crops can be safely stored, and by providing proper storage, they will last for months or even years. “In my zone, we had a big problem with the drying of production,” says Josephine, “ but now
the project is building extra drying facilities at the co-operative level which will prevent the loss of production and environmental waste.” Based on the success of that effort, and with the financial support of CIDA’s Partnerships with Canadians Branch, CCA has scaled up its efforts in Rwanda. This time it is a five-year project, worth $4.5 million. Of that, $800,000 will be contributed by Canadian donors through the Co-operative Development Foundation. UGAMA continues to be a key local partner, and a new partner, the Rwandan Centre for Co-operative Research and Training, has been added. The project is working with 15 co-operatives serving farmers growing rice, maize, cassava, soybeans and vegetables. Less than a year into the project, one new rice mill and a new maize mill and dryer have been completed. Farmers are receiving training in better production techniques, and they are accessing fertilizer and good seed through their co-operatives. According to CCA’s Rwanda-based project manager, Fresnel Devalon, the project is designed to meet three objectives. The first is to improve nutrition and food for rural farm families by helping them to produce more and better food. The second is to strengthen the ability of those families to purchase the food that they cannot produce by improving their incomes. As a result of the project, those families will have surplus food, and through co-operatives they will have better access to the marketplace. The third objective addresses the broader issue of resilience. One definition of poverty is the inability to withstand the ups and downs of normal life. Where food security in Rwanda is concerned, resilience could be defined as the ability to continue to feed the population in spite of the inevitable droughts or floods that affect production— natural events that are on the rise with climate change. Through better cultivation techniques, small-scale irrigation, natural resource management and drying and storage facilities, co-operatives will help to provide a buffer against bad growing conditions. Where food security is concerned, Rwanda’s challenges are considerable. By empowering co-operatives to manage the most productive land, to maximize production and to ensure
that as much food as possible reaches the market, Rwanda seems headed in the right direction. And CCA is happy to be along on that exciting journey.
Local Food Works as an Effective Anti-Poverty Tactic in Africa A recent study by the International Food Policy Research Institute has found that increasing the production of staple food crops is a more effective strategy in reducing poverty than increasing the production of cash crops for export sale. The study looked at eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa and found that investments in agriculture are the most effective way to reduce poverty. It found that in every case, producing food for local consumption is three to four times more effective in reducing poverty than the production of cash crops— coffee, tea, tobacco, cut flowers—for export. Even livestock production for local use was found to be a better poverty-reduction investment than cash crops. The study did not attempt to measure the non-economic benefits associated with improved food security— better health and nutrition, for example—but that could easily be added as a further benefit of a foodfirst strategy. The study did find that where export crops were primarily produced by small farmers, there was a greater poverty reduction impact than if larger companies were involved, but that food crops were still a better bet. The study did not specifically look at fairly traded export crops, but it is possible to assume that they would also narrow the poverty reduction gap. Some of the most impressive numbers came from Rwanda, where production of maize, rice, or beans was found to be 60 per cent more effective in reducing poverty than any export crop—further confirmation of CCA’s project strategy there.
Cement blocks dry in the sun, in preparation for the construction of a new rice mill at COOPRORIZ ABAHUZABIKORWA. (photo: Alison Payne)
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