Rwanda | Rwanda

CATALIST Rwanda

The IFDC - An International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development - received funds to help improve social and environmental stability in Central Africa's Great Lakes Region (CAGLR) through accelerated agriculture intensification.

IFDC was convinced that environment could not be protected as long as there is no agricultural intensification. This point of view was taken because in the CAGLR region, the pressure on natural resources is simply too high. Food security cannot happen if the vast majority of the population is rural and it must feed 5-6 people on medium-sized family plots of 0.7 hectare. It cannot prevent erosion and protect noncultivated areas when the population density is increasing, and ancestral agricultural practices remain dominant.

The heart of Central Africa's Great Lakes Region - the target of CATALIST - is particular. Demographic pressure is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and the use of fertilizers is the lowest in the world. The average use of fertilizers in the region is 4 kg/ha/year whereas it is averaged 110 kg/ha/year elsewhere in the world. This, combined to an extremely steep terrain, clearly explains why the soil nutrient balance in the region is the most negative in the world. Indeed, almost 100 kg of nutrients are lost annually per ha of farm land.

Consequently, among external agricultural inputs which are requisite for agricultural intensification, fertilizers are ''primus interpares''. Moreover, intensification has the same importance everywhere; ways that lead to it are quite different for the three countries covered by the project (Burundi, North and South Kivu in the Congo DRC and Rwanda). The three countries have however in common the belief that the change in agriculture will primarily depend on farmers. Environmental conditions are first and foremost: the physical, socio-economic and political environment. If one thing is already clear, it is that farmers are ready for change wherever conditions are conducive to change.

Through an intensive Government policy, the intensification process is already a reality in Rwanda. Agro inputs availability, access and its use is gradually improving; the conditions for investment are such that the processing of agricultural products could quickly grow.

CATALIST works closely with the MINAGRI and supports farmers, their organizations as well as the private sector. CATALIST does not seek to do the work of developing the agricultural sector by itself. It rather seeks to support those who are doing so and those who are seeking support. If the scarcity of means should require that a choice is made, that main criterion is what we call ''the fertile triangle'', i.e. the essential collaboration between producers, traders and private companies and the public sector. This collaboration should be balanced to maximize success.