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The agricultural sector in Rwanda

The agricultural sector in Rwanda

The agricultural sector in Rwanda

  • CELS TRADE Admin

Feeding one of Africa's densest and fastest growing populations is Rwanda's agricultural challenge. Agriculture accounts for 34% of Rwanda's GDP, up from 41% in 2006. In 2012, the sector employed 65.5 per cent of the male and 84.4 per cent of the female labour force (compared to 80 and 92 per cent respectively in 2002). Agriculture is largely responsible for the success of post-genocide growth. This success can be attributed to the Government's decision to invest heavily in the sector - between 2006 and 2013, the share of expenditure allocated to agriculture increased from 3 per cent to 10.7 per cent.

This expansionary policy has made it possible, through subsidies and major investments, to increase the productivity of different crops, the extent of irrigated areas, protect the soil from erosion, improve the use of inputs and access to finance. Policies have also sought to make people less dependent by introducing programmes such as "one cow per poor family". The last component of government action was aimed at improving the conditions of trade in agricultural goods, by limiting import tariffs or diversifying exports.

This change in the agricultural sector led to the development of lucrative cash crops such as tea and coffee, of which Rwanda is now an exporter. As in Ethiopia and Kenya, the two African giants, coffee and tea respectively, these crops have been used to lift the farming population out of poverty, using plants that require relatively little mechanization. The downside to these cash crops is the dependence on international prices, which can sometimes from month to month seriously affect farmers' incomes.


The government intends to continue the modernization of agriculture. The Vision 2020 plan thus plans to develop the agri-food sector, to which productive agriculture will be able to provide raw materials. Instead of aiming for food self-sufficiency that would free the country from imports, Rwanda seems to be playing the comparative advantage card with higher export yields.

But Rwandan agriculture still faces many challenges, which the government has sometimes successfully addressed. For example, equal access to agricultural land. The prestige of ownership is deeply rooted in Rwandan culture, making the fair allocation of land a key factor in the positive evolution of productivity. These efforts have enabled more women to acquire property rights - an imperative given the predominance of women in the sector.

Another challenge is the poor quality of transport and its cost, especially in rural areas, which is a powerful brake on the development of exports and of agriculture included in the international economy, which requires fluidity and speed in the transport of goods.

If the two difficulties mentioned above can be solved through government action, vulnerability to climate change will be much more difficult to counter. The sensitivity of Rwanda and its agriculture to violent climatic events (drought, floods) places the country in a precarious position.

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