Edson Mpyisi

There have been major shifts/changes in land use patterns in Rwanda over the past twelve years. A few striking observations include: As a percentage of total farmland, cultivated land increased. The increase in cultivated land occurred at the expense of pasture and fallow and woodlot. The share of pasture and fallow decreased from 22% in 1990 to 14% in 2002 and woodlot decreased from 11% in 1990 to 7% in 2002. This trend of increasing cultivated land is apparent from the mid-eighties to today. These observations imply that land is being farmed much more intensively without much time to fallow and allow the soil to rejuvenate. Pasture and woodlot are also being cut down at the expense of cultivation. This has important potential implications for productivity as well as for the environment. Average calorie production per person per day in Rwanda is believed to have dropped significantly during the war period, and then has increased on average in 2002 to levels near those measured in 1...

There have been major shifts/changes in land use patterns in Rwanda over the past twelve years. A few striking observations include: As a percentage of total farmland, cultivated land increased. The increase in cultivated land occurred at the expense of pasture and fallow and woodlot. The share of pasture and fallow decreased from 22% in 1990 to 14% in 2002 and woodlot decreased from 11% in 1990 to 7% in 2002. This trend of increasing cultivated land is apparent from the mid-eighties to today. These observations imply that land is being farmed much more intensively without much time to fallow and allow the soil to rejuvenate. Pasture and woodlot are also being cut down at the expense of cultivation. This has important potential implications for productivity as well as for the environment. Average calorie production per person per day in Rwanda is believed to have dropped significantly during the war period, and then has increased on average in 2002 to levels near those measured in 1...

The purpose of this policy synthesis is to document major shifts in output and provide hypotheses about the reasons behind the changes. The paper also documents troubling trends in the traditional agriculture sector, underscoring the need for improved agricultural input and output systems.

The purpose of this policy synthesis is to document major shifts in output and provide hypotheses about the reasons behind the changes. The paper also documents troubling trends in the traditional agriculture sector, underscoring the need for improved agricultural input and output systems.

The purpose of this report is twofold. First, the report provides the first overview of NGO agricultural activities in Rwanda. As such, the report offers new information to inform both governmental and NGO policy and program discussions. Second, the tables presented in this report and appendices help to illustrate the power of the database (Microsoft Access) to respond to a variety of queries or searches generated by different decision-making interests.

The objectives of this policy brief are to describe the post-war situation concerning production practices, comparing the post-war situation (when possible) to the prewar situation; and discuss the implications of the findings for the design of programs and policies to promote agricultural intensification through the use of improved inputs and conservation practices.

Rwanda is currently in transition from a period of emergency to one of development following the 1994 war and genocide. Before the tragic events of 1994, the Agricultural Statistics Division (DSA) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Forestry (MINAGRI) maintained a comprehensive database of agricultural statistics. The DSA was responsible for providing information on agricultural policy based on annual surveys of rural households. These surveys, which were interrupted in 1994 were resumed in 1999 by the Food Security Research Project (FSRP) and the DSA of MINAGRI. The resumption of these activities were aimed at updating the agricultural statistics database and improving the internal capacity of MINAGRI to collect, process, and analyse data on key food security issues and to better inform the policy-making process in ways that will contribute to the promotion of food security in Rwanda.

Rwanda is currently in transition from a period of emergency to one of development following the 1994 war and genocide. Before the tragic events of 1994, the Agricultural Statistics Division (DSA) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Forestry (MINAGRI) maintained a comprehensive database of agricultural statistics. The DSA was responsible for providing information on agricultural policy based on annual surveys of rural households. These surveys, which were interrupted in 1994 were resumed in 1999 by the Food Security Research Project (FSRP) and the DSA of MINAGRI. The resumption of these activities were aimed at updating the agricultural statistics database and improving the internal capacity of MINAGRI to collect, process, and analyse data on key food security issues and to better inform the policy-making process in ways that will contribute to the promotion of food security in Rwanda.

The focus of the study is an assessment of the current status of farmer practices in coffee tree maintenance and farm-level post-harvest coffee processing. The data come from a national survey of households growing coffee. The interview questions replicate a 1991 study addressing the same topics, so frequently it is possible to make ten-year comparisons of changes in farmer practices. The analysis also compares growers according to the number of trees the household manages. In general, differences are greater between the1991 and 2001 countrywide averages than among various categories of 2001 growers—a highly unusual finding in African agriculture. The results indicate that some very basic steps might help improve productivity of Rwanda's coffee sector.

The purpose of this discussion paper is to first document and highlight some of the major shifts in output over the past ten years, and then provide some working hypotheses about the reasons behind the changes. The paper also documents troubling trends in overall productivity in the traditional agriculture sector, underscoring the need for more off-farm employment and for improved agricultural input and output systems.

In Rwanda for the past decade, rural households have lived with civil unrest and genocide, changing land laws, large population flows both into and out of the country, and climatic threats with droughts and floods. The illness and untimely death of prime age adults from a number of health problems (increasingly HIV/AIDS) adds to the stress of these households and has lasting effects on the ability of households to survive. In this research, the authors use household and member level survey data to increase understanding about what is happening in households with such shocks and how they may be different from other Rwandan rural households. This research finds that households affected by adult illness and death strive to maintain their agricultural production, and work to avoid selling assets, yet some households appear to be in a downward spiral, losing assets and income earning potential. They rely heavily on social networks for labor and skills, but clearly these networks will be ...

Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) maintained a comprehensive database of agricultural statistics. The DSA was responsible for providing information on agricultural policy based on annual surveys of rural households. These surveys were conducted under the auspices of the Enquete National Agricole (ENA). These surveys, which were interrupted in 1994 were resumed in 1999 by the Food Security Research Project (FSRP) and the Agricultural Statistics Division (DSA) of the MINAGRI. The FSRP/DSA began conducting agricultural surveys in 1999 using a national sample of 1584 households. The FSRP/DSA collects land use (area) and production data on a seasonal basis (twice a year). The FSRP/DSA has 11 enumerators (one per province) as compared to 78 enumerators that the ENA had before 1994. The current sample size is also 26 % bigger than the one the ENA used. Since the FSRP did not have as much financial resources as those available to the ENA, it had to find a less costly but also accurate method to conduct the surveys. The most time consuming and therefore expensive activity of data collection is area/field measurement. After considering various area measurement methodologies, the FSRP/DSA selected the P 2 /A

The research presented in this paper focuses on the question of what determines a farm family's investments in agricultural intensification and their land use patterns. Particular attention is given to conservation investments, use of organic matter, purchases of chemical inputs, and the link between land use practices and soil erosion.

... Valerie Kelly Edson Mpyisi Damien Byandagara Aleston Kyanga ... The analysis is based on a combination of data provided by (1) the supervising agronomists (plot characteristics and measurements, quantities of inputs distributed, yields obtained, and farmer characteristics) and ...