Writer: Paul Schattenberg, 210-467-6575, paschattenberg@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Linda Cleboski, 979-845-0706, lclebosk@ag.tamu.edu
COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M University is leading a project that focuses on high-value crop development, broadening agricultural capacity and marketing Rwandan agricultural products internationally, said an expert in international agriculture. The project will also help address health issues in that country, especially those related to HIV/AIDS.
A Rwandan woman picks coffee beans for processing and exporting. The new Sustaining Partnerships to enhance Rural Enterprise and Agribusiness Development project, also known as SPREAD, will help many Rwandans increase their incomes and improve their quality of life. Project partners also will work to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, as well as improving the role of women in Rwandan society. (Photo courtesy of The Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture)
The project is Sustaining Partnerships to enhance Rural Enterprise and Agribusiness Development, also known as SPREAD, said Dr. Linda Cleboski, program development coordinator at The Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture in College Station. It is a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Agency for International Development and The Texas A&M University System.
“This is an expansion of ongoing efforts between USAID and other long-time project partners, including Michigan State University, The National University of Rwanda, and various agricultural industry groups and humanitarian organizations,” Cleboski said.
The international development organization has provided $5 million for agricultural enhancement and $1 million for health- and AIDS-related issues for the new project, she said. Project partners are providing an additional $3 million.
“For the past six years, Texas A&M has been part of the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages – or PEARL – project,” she said. “Since 2001, we have provided assistance, including an in-country presence, to help them. And with this new project, we have an even more substantial mandate to work with Rwandan coffee producers and those producers of other key high-value crops, such as chili peppers and cassava, to help produce and market their products.”
The objective of this new five-year project is to increase income and improve quality of life for the Rwandan people, Cleboski said.
“The Rwandan people, including numerous widows and orphans, have been affected by war and genocide dating back to1994,” she said. “Many of them have found a better life though the efforts of this partnership, and we want to help as many more as possible during this new project phase.
“We have already seen how our efforts have led to higher incomes for many Rwandans, especially these widows and orphans, enabling them to improve their homes, pay for medical care and schooling, and buy food and clothing.”
The project leader is Dr. Tim Schilling, coordinator for international programs at Texas A&M.. Schilling and his family have been living in Maraba since 2001.
“This new project is based on the PEARL partnership’s ‘value chain’ development efforts for high-value agricultural products,” Schilling said. “It’s a grass-roots effort to empower producers in rural communities by creating wealth through ‘professionalizing’ processing, quality evaluation, packaging and shipping.”
Rwanda has an agrarian economy, based mainly around small family farms, he said. And Rwandan coffee producers were hit hard by low prices on the international coffee market a few years back.
“Before 2001 Rwanda was penalized for poor quality on the international market,” he said. “It was unknown as a country of origin for specialty coffee, and farmers were even pulling up coffee trees because they couldn’t find a market for their product.”
Because coffee is a major Rwandan export, this had a huge impact on their economy, Schilling added.
Schilling and others worked with coffee growers in Maraba to produce a quality specialty coffee to be sold at higher prices in keeping with international fair-trade practices.
“The result was the production of Café Maraba Bourbon, the first in a line of superior bourbon coffees now sold in the U.S. by more than 20 specialty roasters, including Whole Foods and Community Coffee,” Schilling said. “Last year, the entire coffee crop was completely sold out.”
Rwandan coffee co-op income increased from $650,000 in 2004 to $1.2 million 2005, he said. Revenue from specialty coffee sales from the linkage project and spin-off operations went from zero in 2001 to about $3.5 million in 2006. In addition, the average annual income from coffee for a single farmer, based on 300 participating farmers, has tripled in the past five years.
Partnership efforts also have helped take agricultural extension education and practices to area farmers and build agriculture program development and instruction at Rwandan universities, he said.
“We will continue to expand that educational outreach, but our primary focus will be building Rwanda’s agricultural capacity and improving the livelihoods of small agricultural producers,” Schilling said. We want to enable them to support each link in the product value chain.”
Project participants also hope agricultural commodity sales will increase from $3 million in 2005 to $12 million by 2011, Schilling said. Specialty coffee exports are expected to increase from 2,000 metric tons in 2006 to 10,000 metric tons in 2011.
Key program components include quality improvement control, good environmental practices, organic and fair trade certification preparedness, capacity building, off-farm business development, marketing and sales, credit and finance, and health and AIDS awareness, he said.
“Cupping” laboratories for coffee quality testing, participation in competitions and auctions, a coffee bike program, a coffee radio program, buyer tours, trade shows, coffee brewing equipment maintenance training, barista training, chili sauce manufacturing and processed food development are planned over the next five years. Project partners also plan to develop Rwanda’s tea and spice sectors, beginning in 2008.
The project’s health and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention efforts will include health information radio broadcasts, specialized health-related programs and an internship with National University of Rwanda School of Public Health.
“We also want to get farmers to use more quality improvement technology, and get the private sector more involved in supporting the small landholder farmer,” Schilling said. “On the social level, we’re hoping to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and improve the role of women in rural enterprise development. All these components will work together to improve the quality of life for the Rwandan people.”
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