Sustaining Partnership to enhance Rural Enterprises and
Agribusiness Development
By : Jean Claude Kayisinga
THE SPREAD PROJECT OVERVIEW
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A Cooperative Agreement between The Norman Borlaug Institute at
Texas A&M University and USAID
Funding from USAID of US $6 M over 5 years
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$5 M for Value Chain Program
$1 M for Health: HIV/AIDS/MCH/FP Programs
Five year life time project from Oct 2006-Sept 2011 and it’s a
continuation of PEARL I and II, USAID funded Projects from 2000 to
2006
Operate under the Ministry of Education through the National
University of Rwanda-Faculty of Agriculture
Early focused on specialty coffee and cassava flour, later expands to
high value commodities under Public Privates Partnership:
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Bird’s Eye Chili Pepper
Pyrethrum
Mission of SPREAD
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To target rural Rwandan agricultural
enterprises involved in high value
commodity chains and provide them
with appropriate technical
assistance and access to market and
health related services that results in
increased incomes and improved
livelihoods
SPREAD partnership builds upon the
PEARL partnership
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PEARL placed greater emphasis in institutional and
grass roots development
 Advanced degree training to MS level in the US
 20 Rwandan professionals from NUR, KIST and
ISAR
 Reformed NUR Agriculture School curriculum
 Created Agribusiness department and Food
Science courses
 Establishment of NUR Agriculture Outreach Center
 Increase incomes in rural communities through
creation of innovative agribusiness activities
SPREAD places emphasis on utilizing resources
built under PEARL to grow and sustain profitable
value chains
 Support to businesses along the value chain
 Quality research and development
 Extension network including radio
How it works?
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Working in Partnership with:
 Government
Institutions and Districts : NUR, OCIR-Café,
ISAR, RHODA, RCA , RDB and Districts Authorities etc..
 Other International NGO’s or Projects involved in similar
programs : Technoserve, Alliance of Coffee Excellence,
ADF, Project Rwanda etc…
 More than 30 US and European coffee and Ethnic
foods Companies
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Focusing on quality throughout the entire agricultural
value-chain
Coffee Program: What we found?
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Rwanda is great place for
Arabica Coffee
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Ideal altitudes: 1,500 to
2,600m
Volcanic soils: recent and
weathered
Heirloom varieties: 80% old
bourbons
Perfect rainfall and
temperatures: 2 m and 25ºC
Huge skilled labor force: 80%
of the population working in
agriculture
Liberalized coffee sector
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Why it was unknown in
specialty Coffee Market?
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Government controlled sector
and export monopoly before
1994
Targeted “C” market
400,000 producers Each one
producing and processing it
differently
All selling to one buyer
No incentive for high quality
Poor price led to poorer quality
PEARL and SPREAD Intervention: At
Farmer Level
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Forming Cooperatives
Coffee Washing Station were built
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Direct trade and building relationship with
coffee buyers ( fair trade certification)
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Establishment of Coffee laboratories
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“Brew your Own” Coffee program
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Quality innovation in transport : Designing a
Coffee Cargo bike that can carry 200 kg in
partnership with Project Rwanda
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Support Cooperative to create their own
Exporting and Roasting Company :
RWASHOSCCO and Rwanda Roasters
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At Institutional Level
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The National University of Rwanda
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The National Coffee Development Authority ( OCIR-Café)
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Establishment of the NUR Outreach Center
Radio Salus to develop and broadcast coffee quality and health messages to over
200,000 coffee farming families
Agribusiness and food scientists
Creation of a suitable environment for coffee research
Marketing
Trade show preparation
GIS-based decision support system in partnership with the NUR-CGIS
Quality control systems and extension
Organization in Rwanda and in Africa the first ever prestigious Cup of Excellence
Coffee Competition
Conducting an appellation program for Rwandan coffee in partnership with NUR-CGIS
and Texas A&M University
District level government
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Importance of Good Agricultural Practices to meet market specifications
Impact of the Projects’ intervention at Cooperative Level:
CASE OF MARABA
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Maraba Cooperative Price Differential
$6.00
Evolution of Maraba Coop
Revenue from 2001-2009 for
Specialty Coffee
$5.00
Maraba Coop
Price /kg
$4.00
$350,000
$300,000
National Avg FWC
$3.00
National Avg
Ordinary Coffee
$2.00
$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
$100,000
$1.00
$50,000
$0.00
$0
2002 2004 2006 2008
Year
Impact of the Project’s intervention at
National Level
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Around 400,000 coffee farm families
are making over SIX times today
what they earned in prior to these
USAID projects
Foreign exchange earnings on
specialty coffee have risen from $0 in
2001 to over $12,000,000 now and
growing at 10% annually
Evolution of Specialty Coffee
production in Metric Tons by
number of Processing Center per
year
125
5,000
4,500
4,000
Tons
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146
3,500
74
115
3,000
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Total earnings increased in coffee
from $20M in 2002 to $40M in 2009
Today, over 30 U.S. and European
coffee companies like Starbucks,
Costco are buying over 5,000 tons
annually, directly from the growers.
2,500
2,000
1,500
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1,000
500
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0
1
0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Years
Private and Public Partnership:
Pyrethrum and Chili programs
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PPP between USAID
SPREAD Project, SC Johnson
Family Co. and SOPYRWA:
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To improve agriculture
practices and pyrethrum yield
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Buyers (Dutch
Chili Company)
Agronomics, flower drying and
genetics stock improvement
New coops formed for a better
information flow
To improve farming family
income from pyrethrum
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New coops formed to
empower farmer
Farmer confidence boosted by
ensuring full value of dry
flowers is paid
Support (USAID,
SPREAD)
Processor
(PROMAGRI)
Products Developed
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THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION