CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the
study
Our country Rwanda is a land locked countrywhose land area is
26,338km2. Its location is between 1-3 degree of latitude, in South
and 29-31 degree of longitude in East. 75 miles from equator.Its surface
cultivated is shared as following: 47% for crops land; 20% for forest; 18% for
pasture and 13% for others.The GDP is 400 USD per yearwhen the target is 900
USD per year.
National policy of science and technology and innovation is to
transform Rwanda's currently agriculture based economy to knowledge based
economy by year 2020. (MURENZI R. www.uis.unesco.org)
Our country as many other developing countries focus on
economic development programs.One among them is to develop industrial culture.
The coffee has been and it remains the important source of foreign currencies
for Rwanda. For increase the production coffee and exportation revenues,
political leaders supported by the agricultural institutions,promoted the
culture of coffee by increasing a number of trees of coffee and instauration of
washingstations of coffee.
Coffee has been grown in Rwanda since its introduction by
German Missionaries in 1904. The crop was mainly kept by the colonial
administration to respond to the need for coffee that they cherished but also
to support the economy of the country. Coffee growing was then made compulsory
and the number of coffee producers grew progressively and consequently, the
number of coffee trees and the plantation area considerably increased. Office
des cultures industrielles du Rwanda (OCIR) was created in 1945, with the
mandate of fixing the qualitative norms and classification systems, generating
and diffusing information pertaining to the coffee sector and establishing an
environment of cooperation between different stakeholders that are engaged in
the coffee sector.
In 1998, coffee production occupied around 6.3 percent of the
total cultivated land (OCIR 1998). Meanwhile as production increased, private
operators started setting up coffee processing factories.
The motivation of choosing this topic is to resort some
results from the fact of increasing the number of coffee' trees, the production
proportional to the number of coffee trees; revenue proportional to the numbers
of trees; impact of revenue to the education, consumption, health, saving and
investment
In order to incite the Rwandan citizens and the foreigners to
invest more in the culture of coffee, the economic development plan and social
of Rwanda were characterized by increasing national enterprises. Whose aim is
to improve the quality of coffee.
1.2Problem statement
In general, the central and southern areas of Rwanda are
moderately suitable for coffee growing with the yield varying from 200 to 900
kg of dry coffee per hectare. The highland region in the Northern Province is
unsuitable for coffee because of very low temperatures. The lowland region of
the eastern province is also not suitable for coffee growing due to
insufficient rainfall and longer dry season; the soil fertility is too low for
the coffee crop (OCIR 1998, MINAGRI 2000) almost all produced coffee is
exported as its domestic consumption is quite low.
Apart from productions recorded during the period in the
1980's and some scattered peak years (1991, 1999, 2002 and 2004) the country's
coffee production and exports declined specially since 1990. In 1992 farmers
had started neglecting coffee.
Some of the causes which led to the fall of production are
poor fertility of coffee plantations and poor performance of coffee extension
activities. This degradation is also associated with genocide of 1994: many
coffee producers were killed while others went into a prolonged exile; coffee
extension workers were very few, which resulted in a lack of follow-up and
supervision for coffee producers to care for the crop. Research on coffee was
also disrupted following the shortage of necessary means (OCIR 1998). It is in
the present decade that the crop is again taking off. In terms of quantity, the
average production of coffee is now of 26,100 tons per year (OCIR 2005).
External factors are also important. These include the big
reduction in coffee priceson the international market maintained on a low level
due to overproduction of coffee in countries like Brazil and Vietnam. Since the
competitiveness of Rwanda coffee is being based solely on the price, the
consequences of the fall in the market price have had a huge impact on Rwandan
coffee sector. Rwandan coffee producers continue to receive very low prices
(OCIR 2005).
The quality of coffee depends on the maintenance of coffee
trees in the cultivation stage. Other problems include inefficient systems of
quality control in processing, insufficient price differentiation in relation
to quality and excessive competition among factories and exporters
(MINAGRI2004). The methods used by farmers in processing are traditional
(depulping by stone) and were quite adequate when the quantity was low.
However, with increasing quantity the traditional system failed andquality
deteriorated. There were only a few washing stations which also lacked the
appropriate equipment.
To meet the above challenges, since 1998 the Government,
through OCIR Café, hasundertaken a promotional program me of investing
in coffee production. The changing trends include the replacement of old
varieties by more performing varieties, improving the general plantations'
condition (weeding, mulching, pruning), using inputs (fertilizer, pesticides
against diseases and pests), as well as the restructuring of the producers'
environment (establishment and support given to producers'associations) in
order to progressively take care of all the activities pertaining to output's
increase (MINAGRI 2006).
The coffee quality is also being improved through making
growers sensitive to producing high-quality coffee, strengthening the
cooperative spirit within coffee producers' associations for the establishment
of washing stations and encouraging private entrepreneurs to invest in the
sector (MINAGRI 2006).
Results have started to show as the overall coffee production
is now being revitalized in the different coffee producing regions of the
country. Coffee production increased from 14,268 tons of green coffee in 1998
to 29,000 tons in 2004 (MINAGRI 2004); and the overall quality of
coffee production has improved with high-quality coffee rising from 19.2
percent in 2000 to 45 percent in 2005 (OCIR2005).
For Rwamaganadistrict, and Karenge sector in particular; the
previous problems revealed related to the degradation of quality and the great
reduction in coffee prices, lead to the reduction of areas of coffee plantation
in Karenge sector.
During that period the conditions of Karengecitizensdeclined
and their contribution to the development of their region decreased. But in
2005, when MINAGRI started to improve the quality and strengthening the
cooperative spirit within coffee producers and establishment of
washingstations;the coffee farmers of Karenge sector launched KOPAKAKA
cooperative with aim of improving the quantity and the quality of coffee crops
and increasing the areas on which coffee is cultivated.And improvesocio
economic development of Karenge sector.
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