Agricultural Policies and Local Grievances in Rural Rwanda

Land, power and peace: Tenure formalization, agricultural reform, and livelihood insecurity in rural Rwanda

“…Specifically, while farmers are both willing and able to register their holdings, households are being warned that if they ignore Government planting and harvesting directives, their crops will be ripped out of the ground, and the lands of repeat offenders will be transferred to individuals willing to follow state-requirements. Although the National Agricultural Policy provides very little information on how crop intensification will be (and is being) implemented, data collected for this project confirm initial findings by Ansoms (2009) andHuggins (2010), who conclude that crop specialization is being forced on subsistence households. Ansoms (2009, p. 91) quotes a Government official as stating that "[farmers] are obliged to obey," either they invest in crop specialization, or they will "have to leave their land and work for someone who is willing to invest."…”

“…However, beyond confirming initial findings by Ansoms (2009) and Huggins (2010) that crop specialization is being forced on subsistence farmers through overt threats of eviction, interviews for this project also demonstrate that the simultaneous implementation of large-scale land reform and intensification are reducing tenure security in three ways.…”

“…The importance of land to livelihood stability and economic reform is especially relevant in Rwanda, where increasing population pressure has led to the continued fragmentation of holdings, declines in agricultural production, and increased conflict over plots (Clay and Lewis, 1990;André, 1998;GoR, 2004a). Despite substantial and continued reductions in the sustainability of the agricultural sector, approximately eighty per cent of Rwandans depend on subsistence agriculture (Huggins, 2010). Given the overwhelming reliance on household production and extreme pressure on cultivable land throughout the country, immediately following the genocide the Government of Rwanda (GoR) launched a series of short to medium-term reforms targeting the organization and management of the land tenure and agricultural sectors.…”

“…Given the overwhelming reliance on household production and extreme pressure on cultivable land throughout the country, immediately following the genocide the Government of Rwanda (GoR) launched a series of short to medium-term reforms targeting the organization and management of the land tenure and agricultural sectors. 1 Beyond these initial policies aimed at peacefully re-settling large populations of refugees and internally displaced peoples, in 2009 the Government implemented a series of large-scale land tenure and agricultural reforms intended to revolutionize the rural system away from subsistence production to a commercially oriented sector of professional farmers (Ansoms, 2009;Huggins, 2010). On the one hand, given increasing population pressure and conflict over holdings, and in an attempt to address the "shortcomings of both customary and statutory regulations" (Pottier, 2006, p. 520), the Government of Rwanda is currently implementing a mandatory land registration and formalization program.…”

“…A detailed overview of the land policies implemented immediately following the genocide is beyond the scope of this paper and has been provided in significant detail by Musahara and Huggins (2005), Pottier (2005), Bruce (2007) and Pritchard (2010). all farmers to consolidate "agricultural production by planting the same government approved crops on adjacent fields" (Huggins, 2010).…”