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This study investigated the level of productivity and competitiveness of Rwandanagriculture by focusing on the case study of the maize sector. The data werecollected through close monitoring of maize production activities on a sample of 50producers from five maize producers’ cooperatives selected in the districts ofHuye, Rusizi, Gasabo, Burera and Bugesera (Rwanda) during two agriculturalseasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015. They were supplemented by directobservation, interviews with targeted resource persons and secondary data onmaize imports and exports retrieved from FAOSTAT website. The analysis wasconducted using the comparative analysis, the farm-level economic performanceindicators, the Net Export Index (NEI) and the Grubel-Lloyd (GL) measure. Theresults revealed that the yield was very low compared to theoretical expected yieldsfor about 80% of producers. The analysis showed that the rational use of improvedseeds, chemical and organic fertilizers improved the yield. The analysis of the NEIand the GL measures for maize flour and maize grain revealed that Rwanda was anet importer. For these staple foods, the results revealed that if Rwanda managed,through policy and institutional actions, to remove or alleviate the bottlenecks thatprevent farmers from producing enough for export, it could have had a competitiveadvantage on regional markets.

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Economists use two different approaches, unitary and collective, to analyze household decisions. The unitary approach ignores the differences between single-person and multi-person households, whereas the collective approach states that each person in the household must be characterized by specific preferences. The household’s decisions concern mainly the allocation of their income to current consumption or for savings and future consumer expenditures. This study uses the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) data collected from a random sample in 2015 in Rwanda. The ordinary least squares (OLS) method was applied to a linear regression model to estimate the household demand functions (total household consumption expenditures, household food consumption expenditures and household nonfood consumption expenditures). The results show that the socioeconomic characteristics of the household, the possession of productive assets and wealth conditions as well as the household locational controls are among the primary drivers of its consumption expenditures. The findings highlight the policy efforts that improve household human capital (education, health), access to and capitalization of productive assets and financial capital, continuous urbanization of rural areas, and sustained provision of quality infrastructure, to achieve high standards of household welfare.