In Rwanda, farming competently is not enough

BY AFRICAN STANDARDS, Rwanda is an agricultural success story. Yields of bananas, beans, cassava and maize—the four main crops by land area—have all risen substantially since the turn of the century. Over the five years to 2017, the country’s maize fields were more productive than those in neighbouring Burundi, Kenya or Tanzania, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an arm of the UN.

A third of Rwanda’s small maize farmers and more than two-thirds of small rice farmers plant improved hybrid seeds in the main growing season, which begins in September. Fertiliser imports are rising; in Western province, an agricultural hub, most farmers use it. Smallholders get sound advice from an army of government-trained “farmer promoters” and from One Acre Fund, a large charity. If you believe the government’s figures, extreme poverty is falling. Even if you do not, more houses have metal roofs and cement floors.

But talk to Marie, who grows beans and maize on steeply sloping land in the village of Ryaruhanga, and it becomes clear that this is not nearly enough. Although Marie has planted improved seeds and used some fertiliser, her crops have fared poorly. Some seeds rotted in the ground, while others grew slowly because of a lack of rain at a critical time. Necessity has driven her to work as an agricultural labourer...

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