There is an urgent need for countries to transition their national food and land-use systems toward food and nutritional security, climate stability, and environmental integrity. How can countries satisfy their demands while jointly delivering the required transformative change to achieve global sustainability targets? Here, we present a collaborative approach developed with the FABLE—Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land, and Energy—Consortium to reconcile both global and national elements for developing national food and land-use system pathways. This approach includes three key features: (1) global targets, (2) country-driven multi-objective pathways, and (3) multiple iterations of pathway refinement informed by both national and international impacts. This approach strengthens policy coherence and highlights where greater national and international ambition is needed to achieve global goals (e.g., the SDGs). We discuss how this could be used to support future climate and biodiversity negotiations and what further developments would be needed.

Aims: Snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) productivity is low in Rwanda. Investigations were carried out to assess the productivity of Snap bean using pot experiments. Methodology: The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with seven (7) treatments: Compost (T0), Cow manure (T1), Sheep manure (T2), Compost with diammonium phosphate (DAP), DAP alone (T3), Cow manure with DAP (T4), Sheep manure with DAP (T5) and control (T6) on Andisol and Oxisol replicated three (3) times. Results: The results showed that the pod yield was the highest in Andisol (2.39 tha-1) and the application of sheep manure significantly (P<.001) increased the leaf area, the number of leaves (P = .01) and the plant height (P= .

Rwanda’s “Crop Intensification Program (CIP)” is primarily a land consolidation program aimed at improving agricultural productivity and food security. The program, which began in 2007, focuses on monocropping and commercialization of six priority crops: maize, wheat, rice, white potato, beans, and cassava. CIP has facilitated easy access to improved seed stocks, fertilizer, extension services, and postharvest handling and storage services. Although studies have documented the impact of CIP on changes in farm yield, incomes, and productivity, less is known about its impact on food prices. In this study, we examine the crop-food price differences in intensive monocropped CIP and non-intensive monocropped CIP zones in Rwanda. Specifically, the study evaluates price variations of beans and maize along with complementary food crops in intensive and non-intensive monocropped zones before and after the introduction of the CIP policy. We find that the CIP policy is not associated with differences in CIP crop prices between the intensive and non-intensive monocropped zones. Over time, prices increased for CIP crops but generally, the crop prices in the two zones were cointegrated. Prices for non-CIP crops in the two different zones did show price differentials prior to the implementation of CIP, with the prices in intensive monocropped zones being greater than in the non-intensive monocropped zones. Moreover, the prices in intensive areas are cointegrated with prices in non-intensive areas for maize and beans and these prices are converging. This indicates that farmers who intensively produced one CIP crop were able to go to the market and purchase other food crops and that price differences between zones have decreased over time, potentially making the CIP intensive farmers better off.

Purpose An extended period of economic growth along with stubborn childhood stunting and wasting levels raises questions about how consumer food purchasing behaviors respond to income increases in Rwanda. The purpose of this paper is to assess the role income, prices, policy, agricultural production, and market access play on how rural households purchase different food groups. Design/methodology/approach Six separate log-normal double hurdle models are run on six different food groups to examine what affects the probability a household purchases in each food group and for those who do purchase, what determines the quantity purchased. Findings Rural Rwandans are price and expenditure responsive but prices have more impact on food group purchases. Crop production resulted in reduced household market procurement for its associated food group but had mixed effects on the purchases of all other food groups. Rural Rwandans purchase and consume low amounts of animal-based proteins which may be a leading factor related to the high stunting and wasting rates. Owning an animal increased the purchased quantity of meat but lowered the purchased quantity of most other food groups. Practical implications Results suggest that policies and programs have to address multiple constraints simultaneously to increase the purchases of the limited food groups in the rural household diets that may be contributing to the high rates of stunting and wasting. Originality/value This study is the first to evaluate the interplay among prices, household income, household production, policies and donor programs, and demographic variables on rural Rwandan household food purchases.

Approximately 752 million of the world's poor keep livestock to produce food, generate income, and build assets. Women represent two-thirds (~400 million people) of low-income livestock keepers. Infectious diseases are a major issue in preventing livestock keepers from optimizing production earnings and improving food security. In Rwanda, highly contagious yet preventable diseases that affect animals that women manage, such as Rift Valley fever in goats and Newcastle disease in chickens have a high-mortality rate and can devastate their herds. Women are disproportionately affected because they bear primary responsibility for goats and chickens. These diseases are preventable through vaccination, but smallholder women farmers rarely benefit from livestock vaccines. Social norms and entrenched cultural stereotypes limit women's confidence and decision-making and restrict their access to resources and information. Women smallholder farmers find that there is little support for the small livestock they manage, because of the official preference given to cattle. They are also challenged by limited availability of livestock vaccines due to lack of a cold chain, inadequate extension, and veterinary services, especially for goats and chickens, and unreliable structures for vaccine delivery. To identify opportunities for women's engagement in the livestock vaccine value chain (LVVC) and reduce their barriers to accessing and using livestock vaccines, we used Outcome Mapping, a stakeholder engagement tool, and the Gender Equality Continuum Tool to classify and engage critical partners in the LVVC. We analyzed each critical partner's capacities, incentives, and drivers for engagement with women, challenges and barriers that hinder their support for women farmers, opportunities at systemic and programmatic levels for women's participation and benefit in the LVVC, and the gender capacities and perceptions of different stakeholders. Enhanced positioning and visibility of women in the LVVC can occur through a systemic engagement of all stakeholders, and recognition of the roles that women play. Women smallholder farmer involvement when determining and shaping the potential entry-points is critical to ensure support for their existing responsibilities in family food security, and future opportunities for generating income. Strengthening gender capacities of LVVC stakeholders, addressing identified barriers, and building on existing opportunities can increase women's participation in the LVVC.

Improving livelihoods in Rwanda requires overcoming food insecurity and malnutrition. Vision 2050 is Rwanda’s long-term development strategy, yet little is known about its potential trade-offs for the country’s biodiversity, forest cover, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Scenario analysis can provide insights into how to achieve such goals more sustainably. Here, we use the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) Calculator, a simple integrated assessment tool, to explore potential sustainability implications by 2050 through two scenarios: (1) Current Trends and (2) Vision 2050. The Vision 2050 pathway incorporates components of the government’s long-term development strategy and associated national agricultural policy targets. It includes greater increases in crop productivity and decreases in post-harvest losses, and shifts to more sustainable diets, compared to the Current Trends pathway. Results show that the Vision 2050 pathway would, relative to Current Trends, lead to a greater decrease in agricultural land area and an increase in non-forested natural land-cover area, with consequent decreases in GHG emissions from agriculture, increases in carbon sequestration, and increases in the share of land that can support biodiversity conservation. Shifts to a healthier diet in the Vision 2050 pathway would only be compatible with national agricultural priorities if these diets favor consumption of foods that underpin sustainable livelihoods in Rwanda, such as beans, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, banana, and corn. We discuss the potential for integrated land-use planning and adoption of agroecological farming practices to help Rwanda achieve food security, livelihood, biodiversity, and climate mitigation goals in tandem.

Purpose Policymakers and stakeholders lack empirical evidence on the effectiveness of community participatory management for agribusiness development and environmental conservation. The purpose of this paper is to assess the management preferences, approaches and practices of farm communities in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park (VNP). Design/methodology/approach Primary data collected from 191 farmers were used. A choice experiment on current and potential park management practices and utilization levels was conducted along with a survey on socioeconomic, farm and institutional behavior characteristics. Findings Results show that farmers prefer preserving VNP resources for the production of agribusiness crops that are low input and environmental friendly and provide high income to farmers in addition to handcraft production to enhance cultural, plant and wild animal tourism development. Farmers highly value integrated stakeholder participatory decision making about the parks natural resources. High-income farmers prefer to restore traditional cultural heritage park sites for recreation, and ancestral intellectual and cultural property rights. Research limitations/implications The sample size limited the analysis to a conditional logit model. Originality/value This is the first study to assess the management preferences of farm communities in the VNP area.

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