Sustaining Partnership to enhance Rural Enterprises and Agribusiness Development By : Jean Claude Kayisinga

THE SPREAD PROJECT OVERVIEW  A Cooperative Agreement between The Norman Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M University and USAID  Funding from USAID of US $6 M over 5 years – $5 M for Value Chain Program – $1 M for Health: HIV/AIDS/MCH/FP Programs  Five year life time project from Oct 2006-Sept 2011 and it’s a continuation of PEARL I and II, USAID funded Projects from 2000 to 2006  Operate under the Ministry of Education through the National University of Rwanda-Faculty of Agriculture  Early focused on specialty coffee and cassava flour, later expands to high value commodities under Public Privates Partnership: – Bird’s Eye Chili Pepper – Pyrethrum 2

Mission of SPREAD  To target rural Rwandan agricultural enterprises involved in high value commodity chains and provide them with appropriate technical assistance and access to market and health related services that results in increased incomes and improved livelihoods 3

SPREAD partnership builds upon the PEARL partnership  PEARL placed greater emphasis in institutional and grass roots development  Advanced degree training to MS level in the US 20 Rwandan professionals from NUR, KIST and ISAR  Reformed NUR Agriculture School curriculum Created Agribusiness department and Food Science courses  Establishment of NUR Agriculture Outreach Center Increase incomes in rural communities through creation of innovative agribusiness activities  SPREAD places emphasis on utilizing resources built under PEARL to grow and sustain profitable value chains  Support to businesses along the value chain  Quality research and development  Extension network including radio 4

How it works?  Working in Partnership with:  Government Institutions and Districts : NUR, OCIR-Café, ISAR, RHODA, RCA, RDB and Districts Authorities etc..  Other International NGO’s or Projects involved in similar programs : Technoserve, Alliance of Coffee Excellence, ADF, Project Rwanda etc…  More than 30 US and European coffee and Ethnic foods Companies  Focusing on quality throughout the entire agricultural value-chain 5

Coffee Program: What we found?  Rwanda is great place for Arabica Coffee  Ideal altitudes: 1,500 to 2,600m  Volcanic soils: recent and weathered  Heirloom varieties: 80% old bourbons  Perfect rainfall and temperatures: 2 m and 25ºC  Huge skilled labor force: 80% of the population working in agriculture  Liberalized coffee sector  Why it was unknown in specialty Coffee Market?  Government controlled sector and export monopoly before 1994  Targeted “C” market  400,000 producers Each one producing and processing it differently  All selling to one buyer  No incentive for high quality  Poor price led to poorer quality 6

PEARL and SPREAD Intervention: At Farmer Level  Forming Cooperatives  Coffee Washing Station were built  Direct trade and building relationship with coffee buyers ( fair trade certification)  Establishment of Coffee laboratories  “Brew your Own” Coffee program  Quality innovation in transport : Designing a Coffee Cargo bike that can carry 200 kg in partnership with Project Rwanda  Support Cooperative to create their own Exporting and Roasting Company : RWASHOSCCO and Rwanda Roasters 7

At Institutional Level  The National University of Rwanda  Establishment of the NUR Outreach Center  Radio Salus to develop and broadcast coffee quality and health messages to over 200,000 coffee farming families  Agribusiness and food scientists  Creation of a suitable environment for coffee research  The National Coffee Development Authority ( OCIR-Café)  Marketing  Trade show preparation  GIS-based decision support system in partnership with the NUR-CGIS  Quality control systems and extension  Organization in Rwanda and in Africa the first ever prestigious Cup of Excellence Coffee Competition  Conducting an appellation program for Rwandan coffee in partnership with NUR-CGIS and Texas A&M University  District level government  Importance of Good Agricultural Practices to meet market specifications 8

Impact of the Projects’ intervention at Cooperative Level: CASE OF MARABA 9

Impact of the Project’s intervention at National Level  Around 400,000 coffee farm families are making over SIX times today what they earned in prior to these USAID projects  Foreign exchange earnings on specialty coffee have risen from $0 in 2001 to over $12,000,000 now and growing at 10% annually  Total earnings increased in coffee from $20M in 2002 to $40M in 2009  Today, over 30 U.S. and European coffee companies like Starbucks, Costco are buying over 5,000 tons annually, directly from the growers. 10

Private and Public Partnership: Pyrethrum and Chili programs  PPP between USAID SPREAD Project, SC Johnson Family Co. and SOPYRWA:  To improve agriculture practices and pyrethrum yield Agronomics, flower drying and genetics stock improvement New coops formed for a better information flow  To improve farming family income from pyrethrum New coops formed to empower farmer Farmer confidence boosted by ensuring full value of dry flowers is paid Buyers (Dutch Chili Company) Processor (PROMAGRI) Support (USAID, SPREAD) 11

Products Developed 12

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION 13