This project is designed to improve the socio-economic condition of smallholder farmers through the formation of cooperatives. Through the proposed project, we would bring the youth (both men and women) to form cooperatives. The confidence built thereafter will bring more structure, unity balance, and growth to the community as a whole. Cooperatives not only help in mutual support but also help the members to tap the benefits of economies of scale. The project will help in mobilizing the farmers into a cooperative and instilling values of self-help, responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, solidarity, honesty, and caring for others.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Rwanda is a landlocked country in central/eastern Africa, located a few degrees south of the Equator with a high elevation. The climate here ranges from temperate to subtropical with ideally two rainy seasons per year. Rwanda has a population of 12.63 million[1] which, although young, is predominantly rural, thereby leading to its dependency on agriculture as its main activity. Despite being blessed with an extraordinarily fertile land, the food production does not keep up with the pace of population and infrastructure growth, owing to the use of obsolete and traditional tools and methods of production.
The low agricultural productivity not only impacts the economy of Rwanda but also results in malnutrition and other health related issues. Now imagine a country where human resources being the major factor of production, is unable to function effectively due to absence of food security; thus giving rise to a spiral of poverty.
Considering the fact that agriculture is crucial for Rwanda’s growth and reduction of poverty, various projects and operations carried out and assisted by organizations such as the World Bank, FAO, IFAD etc. which in turn has increased its contribution in the GDP to 31% in 2017 from 28% in 2010 and hence lead to an increase in GNI too.[2]
Though there has been considerable improvement in the sector, the biggest problem that the sector faces is the size of the landholding and landlessness. The poor households often end up selling their lands to meet their household needs and other unforeseen costs, which leads to reduction in the size of their landholding. On average households typically have just 0.75 hectares.
The young people in Rwanda constitute more than 40% of the entire population, hence mobilizing the youth by providing them the skills and knowledge regarding the latest technologies and methods of production and enabling them to bring in their creative and innovative ideas to make the Agri-business more sustainable and profitable. The rate of unemployment is high among women and agriculture constitutes 90% of employment opportunities in the economy dominated by small scale, subsistence and rain-fed farming. Through the proposed project, we would bring the youth (both men and women) to form cooperatives. The confidence built thereafter will bring more structure, unity, balance and growth in the community as a whole.
PROJECT RATIONALE
Through the project we would like to work towards improving the socio-economic condition of the smallholder farmers through formation of cooperatives. The principle of cooperatives calls for the members to come together voluntarily and strive towards better management of available resources. Cooperatives not only help in mutual support but also help the members to tap the benefits of economies of scale. The project will help in mobilizing the farmers into a cooperative and instilling values of self-help, responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, solidarity, honesty and caring for others.
Bringing people together and instilling in them a sense of collective responsibility towards their land, is one of the most important and pivotal steps in any sector especially where individuals have less to contribute in monetary or material aspects. People coming together and forming autonomous associations provides them with the opportunity of pooling what they have and creating something bigger and more powerful that matches their social, economic and cultural needs and aspirations.
In the field of agriculture, this step of forming a cooperative not just accelerates the production process but instills in small and marginal farmers the confidence to collectively do what the big farmers can do. Moreover the easy access to the factors of production and skill required to produce efficiently increases the quantity as well as the quality of production. Individual voices come together and create a platform for foreign investments and involvement of organizations and foundations that work to serve the less fortunate with the will to change.
Some of the advantages of the proposed cooperative model are given below:
- Scale up the consolidated land for more crop production.
- Build ecological resilience by implementing Agroforestry and Watershed Management to improve the overall climate of wastelands.
- Distributing high yielding and good quality seeds of “nutritious” fruits and vegetables that are more in demand and fetch a higher price.
- Introducing capacity building and the gender equality component to bring in more participation.
- Using Sustainable methods of production to not just conserve the existing natural resources but enhance the quality of production and use require less manpower.
- The quality of soil of wastelands could be enhanced by planting fruit trees, fuel trees and forest trees (Agroforestry) and the soil ph could be used accordingly to grow fruits and vegetables with high nutritional value and demand.
[1] As of 2019
[2] Rwanda’s agriculture sector growth on upward trend – Xinhua | English.news.cn (xinhuanet.com)
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