Beans, chillies and a recipe for success in Rwanda

Dorothee’s story about making life better with beans

Not too long ago, Dorothee and her husband were struggling to make ends meet. They were growing crops like cassava and bananas and selling them to neighbours and at the local market, but it didn’t bring in enough money for important things like food, clothing and education for their six children.

To cope, Dorothee had taken a loan from her community savings group. However, this only left her in debt: ‘I was living in a sad situation of having taken loans that I couldn’t reimburse,’ she tells us. ‘This made our family ridiculed, to the extent that we were ashamed and could hardly move about in the community.’

Horticulture as the answer to poverty

Life is different now! Dorothee is one of 30,000 farmers in Rwanda who Tearfund has been working with as part of an EU-funded horticulture project, providing them with training to grow high-value crops successfully and then get their crops to local and international markets.

Dorothee joined the project in 2021 and learned how to grow French beans. She was also connected to an exporter who buys her produce.

Now, after a few seasons of good production and income, Dorothee has been able to buy her own plot of land. ‘I’m able to handle all family issues like medical insurance payments, feeding the family members, school fees for my children, and I am able to save £100 per month from my horticulture business.’

Dorothee's next goal is to buy a vehicle so she can transport her produce to the market. She is so happy with how things are going that she’s also active in encouraging other members of her community to invest in horticulture too.

Jean’s story of how chillies finally got him to university

Jean lives in eastern Rwanda. He finished high school in 2014 and dreamt of going to university, but there was no way he could afford it. Instead, he turned to farming, working a small area of land that never really earned much, in spite of his efforts.

In 2020, Jean was one of the first people to take part in the horticulture project, where he received training on good agricultural practices and other skills, including chilli processing He decided to give what he had learnt a try and started to produce a small amount of chilli oil at home.

As part of Tearfund’s aim to encourage young people to get involved in horticulture, the project had organised a youth competition in Jean’s home district. Jean entered and won the opportunity to participate in a three-month programme in Kigali, where he gained further knowledge and skills on chilli processing and make connections with potential clients and finance providers.

After graduating from the programme, Jean also received some finance to develop his chilli processing business. He has used this funding and the networks he built through the programme to grow his client base across Rwanda.

Now, Jean processes about 5,000 bottles of chilli oil per month, which he sells to markets, shops and hotels around Rwanda. He’s also managing to save money – enough to enrol in university!

He says, ‘This project has changed my life. I imagine how I would be if this project did not come to work in Kayonza District and I thank God for he paves a way where there is no way! My mother had no money to pay for me to go to university. Today, I save money every month. I can pay for myself and even if need be I can pay for my sisters and brother. It is this year that I will join University which was my dream from childhood.’

More about the project: Catalyzing Market Prospects for Horticulture* Smallholder Farmers and Small and Medium Enterprise

Tearfund Rwanda is leading this project, which is called Catalyzing Market Prospects for Horticulture Smallholder Farmers and Small and Medium Enterprise. It’s funded by the European Union and implemented in partnership with African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) and technical support from the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB).

Horticulture in Rwanda has faced significant gaps in the past. As a largely informal sector, farmers have had limited access to improved farming methods. Produce has often been low quality and once it has been harvested lots of the crop has been lost because of lack of access to the appropriate infrastructures for handling it. There has also been poor access to markets and market information, and the produce has struggled to meet quality and food safety standards.

This project is helping to change that by training 30,000 smallholder farmers to improve their production and access to markets, and equipping them to supply safe, high-quality products to local, regional and international markets.

A digital solution for horticulture

Unpredictable weather, limited market access, inadequate agricultural practices and insufficient financing are some of the issues that can hinder farmers’ production and success.

In response to these challenges, Tearfund Rwanda has collaborated with The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) and NAEB to set up digital solutions to help farmers find solutions. This includes developing a digital platform, which will help connect smallholder farmers to local traders and exporters, giving them greater access to markets and market information, and making trading more efficient.

Getting products to market in Europe

As part of the Project, in October, Tearfund helped a group of exporters to attend Fruit Attraction, a big international trade fair for fresh produce in Madrid. The exporters were able to meet current and new buyers for the farmers’ produce. (Two of the farmers had also hoped to attend but were unable to secure travel visas.)

Following the Madrid trade fair, the group attended an event in London called Taste of Rwanda, organised by the Rwanda and UK High Commissions to showcase Rwandan coffee, tea and horticulture to UK buyers

Answering the need for jobs

The World Bank recently reported that: ‘Over the next 10 years, an unprecedented 1.2 billion young people in the Global South will become working-age adults. Meanwhile, the job market is only expected to create 420 million jobs, leaving nearly 800 million without a clear path to prosperity. Though some young people will be in further education, their eventual entry into the labour market will add to this challenge.’

As a growing sector in Rwanda, with high potential to expand, horticulture seems an obvious part of the answer to this need, and the Government of Rwanda is prioritising investment in agriculture to ensure that it is market-oriented and sustainable. Horticulture exports from Rwanda grew by 118 per cent between 2018 and 2022.

Because of this, horticulture offers excellent social and economic opportunities for Rwandans in a country where 80 per cent of the population is involved in farming as a means of generating income.

Of these, 77 per cent operate on land of less than 0.5 hectares. By equipping farmers to grow for the market and switching from only growing traditional staple crops, which require more land to grow and yield less produce, to high-value horticultural crops including chilli, french bean, onion, pineapple, African eggplant, tomato, cucumber and sweet pepper, wealth creation possibilities for smallholder farmers have significantly increased.

This crop diversity also helps improve nutrition for Rwandan families by improving the range of foods available to eat.

Climate-smart agricultural practices

To improve productivity and quality, as part of the project, farmers have been trained and supported in climate-smart agricultural practices to help them maximise crop yields while minimising environmental impact. This involves things like:

• use of improved seed
• integrated pest management
• adoption of climate-resilient technologies
• promotion of greenhouses
• crop rotation

Women in the workforce: farming

Women farmers in Rwanda are primarily engaged in the informal agriculture sector, in low-skilled, low-income employment with little or no social protection. To help address this, 72 per cent of the farmers included in the project are women.

Activities as part of the project have been specifically aimed at women-led enterprises to help with product and business development and to develop their skills in leadership, marketing and branding. And by setting up forums and peer mentorship, the farmers are able to share knowledge, learning and motivation.

*What is horticulture?

Horticulture is the science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers or ornamental plants. It’s usually done on smaller plots of land and with less machinery than other types of agriculture.