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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

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researcher spotlight

Samuel Benin

Samuel Benin is the Acting Director for Africa in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. He conducts research on national strategies and public investment for accelerating food systems transformation in Africa and provides analytical support to the African Union’s CAADP Biennial Review.

Where we work

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Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

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Fertile field at sunset in the countryside (Rwanda/ Africa)

country program

Rwanda Strategy Support Program

Fertile field at sunset in the countryside (Rwanda/ Africa)

country programs

Overview

The Rwanda Strategy Support Program (Rwanda SSP) is an initiative aligned with the Government of Rwanda’s vision for accelerating agricultural transformation and rural development throughout the country. The program supports Rwanda’s forward-looking strategy for economic growth and transformation through policy analysis, capacity development, and partnership, with a focus on two main themes:

  • Collaborative policy analysis to prioritize agricultural transformation, increase agricultural productivity, improve nutrition, strengthen food systems and the rural nonfarm economy, and foster broad-based economic growth and development in Rwanda.
  • Capacity development and knowledge sharing to undertake timely and relevant policy analysis, communicate actionable findings to policymakers and their development partners, and build linkages for knowledge sharing across research, government, civil society, and other stakeholder communities.

The Rwanda SSP is supported by the European Union, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), CGIAR and contributors to the CGIAR Fund, as well as other donors and partners, reflecting a shared interest among Rwanda’s development partners in policy analysis and capacity development for informed decision-making. The program, launched in 2019, is a joint initiative between the Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) and IFPRI.

To learn more, visit the IFPRI Rwanda website.

Links/Projects

IFPRI Rwanda Website

N/A

Donors

Partners

Duration

2019 – Ongoing

Publications

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Working Paper

Costs and returns in Rwandan smallholder agricultural production: Gross margins and profitability analyses

2024Mugabo, Serge; Warner, James
Details

Costs and returns in Rwandan smallholder agricultural production: Gross margins and profitability analyses

This paper explores crop commercialization among smallholder agricultural households in Rwanda from a cost and revenue perspective to determine profitability at the farm level. We use standard revenue and cost equations to assess the commercial viability of the smallholders. In general, we find that a household’s total crop production creates positive returns even if implicit costs, such as own family labor and fertilizer subsidies, are included. Specifically, over 80 percent of our sample households generated positive economic returns from farming— referred to as demonstrating a positive gross economic margin (GEM). However, if only crop market sales and market input costs are used in the calculations, only 40 percent of agricultural households generated positive returns—referred to as demonstrating a positive gross marketing margin (GMM). Most of the explanation for this difference is that the typical farm household sells only about one-third of its crop production by value. This outcome suggests that many agricultural households continue to focus on cultivating food crops for their own consumption and do not specialize in commercial production. This is to be expected in an economic context where input, credit, and commodity markets are still developing, production decisions are still shaped by high levels of weather and market risk, and production risk management options are limited, among many other factors. The results of this research provide a better understanding of how Rwandan smallholders might move towards higher value production, with the ultimate goal being to increase household revenues and welfare and accelerate the country’s economic transformation.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mugabo, Serge; Warner, James

Citation

Mugabo, Serge; and Warner, James. 2024. Costs and returns in Rwandan smallholder agricultural production: Gross margins and profitability analyses. Rwanda Strategy Support Program Working Paper 14. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148697

Country/Region

Rwanda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Crops; Commercialization; Smallholders; Agriculture; Profitability

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fruit and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Rural income diversification in Rwanda: Opportunities and challenges

2024Schmidt, Emily; Mugabo, Serge; Rosenbach, Gracie
Details

Rural income diversification in Rwanda: Opportunities and challenges

The Government of Rwanda continues to work to accelerate structural transformation to expand and diversify the country’s economy. High rural population density and small agricultural landholdings are driving workers from agricultural households to seek employment outside of farming. Using representative data on agricultural production and employment for rural households in Rwanda from 2022, this research evaluates the opportunities rural households have to diversify their labor portfolios. We find that, rather than nonfarm household enterprises developing to meet greater rural service and goods demand, agriculture wage labor is the dominant source of off-own-farm employment. However, such informal agricultural wage labor is seen as low-productivity work and is among the lowest paid. Among nonfarm employment options, nonfarm businesses generate less income than nonagricultural wage labor, likely reflecting high barriers to entrepreneurship and low demand for off-farm services in rural areas. In contrast to employment profiles from other low-income countries, we find that the probability of a worker from an agricultural household in Rwanda engaging in rural, off-farm wage labor decreases as household welfare increases. Agricultural households that have workers seeking to hire out their labor tend to have the smallest landholdings, while households that hire in labor have the largest landholdings. Additionally, households with a higher share of members who completed primary education are less likely to hire out their labor, especially for agriculture wage work. These results suggest that programs that offer support services to agricultural households, such as financial services and affordable and relevant education, may be important in incentivizing these households to engage in entrepreneurship and form their own businesses or to seek wage employment in more remunerative sectors than agriculture.

Year published

2024

Authors

Schmidt, Emily; Mugabo, Serge; Rosenbach, Gracie

Citation

Schmidt, Emily; Mugabo, Serge; and Rosenbach, Gracie. 2004. Rural income diversification in Rwanda: Opportunities and challenges. Rwanda SSP Working Paper 13. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Rwanda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Agricultural Production; Economic Aspects; Employment; Welfare; Education; Land Ownership

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Assessing agricultural extension agent digital readiness in Rwanda

2024Davis, Kristin; Rosenbach, Gracie; Spielman, David J.; Makhija, Simrin; Mwangi, Lucy
Details

Assessing agricultural extension agent digital readiness in Rwanda

Effective agricultural extension and advisory services are a key component of efforts to achieve sustainable agricultural production, resilient livelihoods, and inclusive economic growth. These are all necessary elements for accelerating Rwanda’s agricultural transformation. Both extension and information and communication technologies (ICT) are important elements in Rwanda’s Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation. This paper examines the capacities of public and private agricultural extension agents in Rwanda and their readiness to use ICT in their work—that is, to be digitally equipped—and provides recommendations for enhancing agricultural extension capacities through expanding and effectively using ICT. To examine capacities and readiness, we use a representative survey of 500 public and private extension agents in Rwanda, augmented by qualitative data from a literature review and key informant interviews. To assess agents’ ‘digital readiness,’ we create two indices focused on their digital experiences and attitudes toward digital modernization.

Year published

2024

Authors

Davis, Kristin; Rosenbach, Gracie; Spielman, David J.; Makhija, Simrin; Mwangi, Lucy

Citation

Davis, Kristin; Rosenbach, Gracie; Spielman, David J.; Makhija, Simrin; and Mwangi, Lucy. 2024. Assessing agricultural extension agent digital readiness in Rwanda. Rwanda SSP Working Paper 12. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Rwanda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Agricultural Extension; Sustainability; Agricultural Production; Livelihoods; Information and Communication Technologies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

What can we really learn from sex-disaggregated data?
IFPRI Blog
 | 
January 11, 2022

What can we really learn from sex-disaggregated data?

By Bjorn Van Campenhout, Els Lecoutere, and David Spielman

Parsing sometimes contradictory responses in household surveys.

National policy dialogue: Charting Rwanda's agricultural transformation
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 12, 2020

National policy dialogue: Charting Rwanda’s agricultural transformation

By Seth Kwizera, Claude Bizimana, and David J. Spielman

Researchers and policy makers must collaborate to implement a national strategic plan.

Program launch: IFPRI, Rwanda government partner on policy analysis, capacity strengthening for rural transformation
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 12, 2019

Program launch: IFPRI, Rwanda government partner on policy analysis, capacity strengthening for rural transformation

By Christopher Rue

A new collaborative program aims at accelerating agricultural development.

News

March 31, 2021 | In the News

Rwanda banks on tech to get 18% households out of food insecurity (The New Times)

The New Times (Rwanda) published an article stating that experts in the agriculture sector have called for robust efforts to increase production and availability of nutritious food following revelations that over 18 percent of the country’s households face food insecurity. The solutions, experts say, could help to eliminate the stunting rate and achieve zero hunger by 2025 in […]

January 28, 2021 | In the News

European Union gives €1 million to support the Agriculture pillar of the National Economic Recovery Plan for COVID-19 in Rwanda (Rwanda News Agency)

Rwanda News Agency reported that the European Commission has provided EUR 1 million to IFPRI to support the Ministry of Agriculture in Rwanda to enhance skills in the analysis of public investment priorities and policy options for the Covid-19 recovery period. This grant will support the Government of Rwanda to implement the agriculture sector strategy and in particular its contribution to the […]

January 27, 2021 | Press Release

European Union gives €1 million to support the Agriculture pillar of the National Economic Recovery Plan for COVID-19 in Rwanda

The European Commission has provided EUR 1 million to IFPRI to support the Ministry of Agriculture in Rwanda to enhance skills in the analysis of public investment priorities & policy options for the COVID-19 recovery period.

Events

Rwanda National Policy Dialogue: Building Productive Capacities for Rwanda’s Agricultural Transformation, Rural Development, and Food Security
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

February 26, 2020, 8:30 – 3:30 pm

Rwanda National Policy Dialogue: Building Productive Capacities for Rwanda’s Agricultural Transformation, Rural Development, and Food Security

The Food Security Portal, in partnership with the Economic Policy Research Network Rwanda (EPRN), will hold a one-day national policy dialogue on building Rwanda’s productive capacities. The event will be a follow-on to the 6th EPRN Annual Economic Research Conference and will emphasize engaging up-and-coming members of the policy and research communities, including mid-level policy […]

Rwanda Strategy Support Program: Enhancing Capacity for Evidence-Based Policy to Accelerate Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

December 6, 2019, 2:30 – 5:00 pm

Rwanda Strategy Support Program: Enhancing Capacity for Evidence-Based Policy to Accelerate Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development

The proposed Rwanda Strategy Support Program is an initiative aligned with the Government of Rwanda’s vision for accelerating agricultural transformation and rural development throughout the country. The program will assist the implementation of the 2018–2024 Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation through policy analysis, capacity development, and partnership. Welcome Keynote Address on the Collaborative Agenda Overview […]

Team members

James Warner

James Warner

Research Fellow/Program Leader, Rwanda, Development
Strategies and Governance

David Spielman

David Spielman

Director, Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS), Innovation
Policy and Scaling

Xinshen Diao

Xinshen Diao

Deputy Division Director, Foresight and Policy Modeling, Foresight
and Policy Modeling

Olivier Ecker

Olivier Ecker

Senior Research Fellow, Foresight
and Policy Modeling

James Thurlow

James Thurlow

Director, Foresight and Policy Modeling (FPM), Foresight
and Policy Modeling

Serge Mugabo

Serge Mugabo

Senior Research Associate, Development
Strategies and Governance

The Programs

  • Kutubdia Island in the Bay of Bengal

    Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Program

    Improving food and nutrition security is of paramount concern to millions in Bangladesh.

  • Wuxi, the fast growing city that was formerly known as White Horse Village.

    China Strategy Support Program

    Supports joint research & capacity strengthening as well as policy dialogues & communication to improve policymaking.

  • Farm land in Giza in Egypt

    Egypt Strategy Support Program

    Egypt SSP's main objective is to raise incomes of the rural poor and to improve food and nutrition security in Egypt.

  • Gayo village, Ethiopia

    Ethiopia Strategy Support Program

    ESSP is a collaborative program undertaken by IFPRI and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI)

  • amevi-wisdom-wiul_nyafcy-unsplash

    Ghana Strategy Support Program

    Conduct research & advise on policy to support agricultural growth, rural development & economic transformation.

  • Local vendors selling vegetables at a market in Kenya,Africa

    Kenya Strategy Support Program

    KSSP is a policy research, capacity strengthening and policy communication program with the main objectives to accelerate poverty reduction and to improve food security.

  • Mitundu Market, Lilongwe, Malawi

    Malawi Strategy Support Program

    This project facilitates and promotes evidence-based dialogue and decision-making in support of agricultural development, food security, and economic growth in Malawi.

  • Country program Myanmar

    Myanmar Strategy Support Program

    The project supports agricultural transformation and other development policy goals by enhancing national technical, institutional, and policy analysis capacities.

  • Nigeria Strategy Support Program

    NSSP responds to the research, analysis, and capacity needs of stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural research and policy community.

  • Fertile field at sunset in the countryside (Rwanda/ Africa)

    Rwanda Strategy Support Program

    Rwanda SSP is an initiative aligned with the Government of Rwanda’s vision to accelerate agricultural transformation and rural development in Rwanda.

  • A sunset view of river Nile in Khartoum, Sudan

    Sudan Strategy Support Program

    The Sudan Country Strategy Support Program (CSSP), with key team members based in Khartoum, can provide needed analytical support to the Government of Sudan, local and international partners.