American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
2018
American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR) e-ISSN :2378-703X Volume-02, Issue-05, pp-09-21 www.ajhssr.com
Research Paper
Open Access
The role of Agricultural Policies in improving production in Rwanda. A Case study of Maize production (1995- 2018) *VédasteHabamenshi&**Sylvie Nibeza * University of Tourism, Technology and Business Studies (UTB) **Head of Departments of Business Management and Finance at Christian University of Rwanda (CHUR); Director of Administration and Finance at Sylvie&Associates Consultancy Company Ltd (SACC Ltd) ABSTRACT : According to Corral, Díaz, Monagas andGarcía (2017),the objective of increasing agricultural incomes in developing countries ranks high on the political agenda. Especially, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the majority of the population lives in rural areas with higher levels of poverty than in urban areas, and almost all rural households depend directly or indirectly on agriculture. Rwanda‟s agricultural policies are embedded in a frame work of conventions and protocols such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), Common Markets for Eastern andSouthern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), Vision 2020, the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction strategy(EDPRS) and finally the Plan for Strategic Transformation of Agriculture (PSTA). The government has initiatedCrop Intensification Program (CIP) to increase productivity for six priority crops namely Maize, Wheat, Rice, Irish potato, Beans and Cassava. Taking Maize as a case study, the present research analyzed the role of agriculture policies in improving maize production in Rwanda during 1995 to 2018. The data were provided by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) and Index Mundi and they were analyzed using Eviews 8 software. The research found that agriculture policies have led to important achievements: Maize production passed from 57 metric ton to 660 metric tons; The individual consumption of maize passed from an estimation of 9.87 kg per year to 43.24 kg; Maize importation passed from 4 metric tons to 107 metric tons; Rwanda started exporting maize since 2010 starting from 5 metric tons to 10 metric ton since 2012 up to 2017. However, despite such impressive achievements, the research noted that many efforts have to be engaged because the production remains lower that required to satisfy the food security for the population. Key words: Agriculture, Agriculture policy, Maize, Production, Rwanda.
I.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
According to the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda 2016, agriculture sector contributed 33% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016. Rwanda‟s economy, as for the majority of African countries, relies of agriculture sector employing currently around 73% of the labor force from 90% in 1995 (NISR, 2014). Since 2000, Rwanda has set to become middle income economy by 2020. To achieve that goal, the Country is embarked for structural transformation aiming at modernizing all sectors of economic activities. The Government has initiated a set of policies aiming at transforming traditional subsistence agriculture to modern and market oriented. Crop intensification program is among those policies.The program prioritizes to improve six major food crops in Rwanda which are maize, rice, banana, irish potatoes, sweet potatoes and cassava. In order to intensifying agricultural production and raise farmers‟ income on existing small lands, heavy efforts and investments are put in place to render exploitable marshlands, improving irrigation systems, facilitate access to high quality seeds, introducing mechanization, and facilitating access to finance (Ngabitsinze, 2014).Focusing on maize production, the present research aims at analyzing the evolution of maize production due to effects of policies and programs designed to improve it. The research will find out the level of satisfaction of the population by the maize produced; This will go together with analyzing import and
AJHSSR Journal
Page |9