Placing Rwanda’s agriculture boom: trust, women empowerment and policy impact in maize agricultural cooperatives

Abstract

Rwanda has experienced significant economic growth following the 1994 Genocide. This growth is attributed to the expansion of its agricultural sector, specifically farming intensification and the government's focus on creating strong agriculture cooperatives. While Rwanda's economic development has been impressive, many academics have argued that Rwanda's growth comes at the cost of an authoritarian governmental regime, whose policies have too heavy a hand in the daily activities of smallholder farming. This study measures smallholder maize farmer loyalty to their cooperatives using the net promoter scores of five different cooperatives. Results differ from much of the recent research on smallholder farmers in Rwanda in that most cooperative members have high levels of trust in their cooperative leaders. Cooperative members who have high levels of trust in their cooperative president, board and the Government of Rwanda are more likely to recommend their cooperative to friends and family. Furthermore, women cooperative members have higher levels of trust in cooperative leadership, the Government of Rwanda and almost all agricultural input providers mentioned in the study. Findings suggest that cooperative policy, most notably the mandatory inclusion of high numbers of women in cooperative decision-making, is helping to promote strong agricultural institutions as well as sustainable economic development.

Public Goods, Civil Society and Sustainability

“…This, in turn, provides an anti-dote to the feelings of powerlessness that plague disconnected individuals in a mass society, thereby reducing the appeal of populist authoritarian demagogues. This function, which Tocqueville [23] saw in American small town voluntary associations in the 1830s was recognized in the post-genocide Rwandan government's decision to make cooperative development a central part of its economic development programs [44].…”

Agricultural Cooperatives and COVID-19 in Southeast Africa. The Role of Managerial Capital for Rural Resilience

“…Again, there is some variation between countries and the percentage of organizations employing professional managers is higher in Kenya (18 percent) and Rwanda (8 percent) and zero in Madagascar. In the absence of professional managers, farmer-owned organizations are usually managed by rural and traditional leaders, which tend to be men [17,27]. This means that efforts to strengthen the managerial capital of rural leaders are unlikely to ensure genderequity in the running of farmer-owned organizations nor social inclusion.…”

“…The scant data available suggest that every other rural village in Africa houses a smallholder-owned cooperative organization of some sort [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The proliferation of such organizations is largely attributed to a wealth of social capital that results from interdependent rural livelihoods [17,18]. Although these organizations continue to serve important social protection functions in many African countries, their role in countervailing market failures that plague the business operations of smallholders has been generally negligible [19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

Influence of Co-operative Characteristics on Financial Performance of Irish Potato Farmer Co-operatives in Northern and Western Province Rwanda

“…In Rwanda, agriculture is the dominant sector of the economy, contributing a third of the country's GDP and about half of Rwanda's export earnings (NISR, 2017). The expansion of the agricultural sector was specifically done through farming intensification and creating solid agricultural co-operatives (Meador & O'Brien, 2019). The Government views co-operatives as an essential vehicle to improve the agriculture sector, and the number of agricultural cooperatives in the country has increased very rapidly (USAID, 2013).…”