Abstract
Rwanda has experienced significant economic growth following the 1994 Genocide. This growth is attributed to the expansion of its agricultural sector, specifically farming intensification and the government’s focus on creating strong agriculture cooperatives. While Rwanda’s economic development has been impressive, many academics have argued that Rwanda’s growth comes at the cost of an authoritarian governmental regime, whose policies have too heavy a hand in the daily activities of smallholder farming. This study measures smallholder maize farmer loyalty to their cooperatives using the net promoter scores of five different cooperatives. Results differ from much of the recent research on smallholder farmers in Rwanda in that most cooperative members have high levels of trust in their cooperative leaders. Cooperative members who have high levels of trust in their cooperative president, board and the Government of Rwanda are more likely to recommend their cooperative to friends and family. Furthermore, women cooperative members have higher levels of trust in cooperative leadership, the Government of Rwanda and almost all agricultural input providers mentioned in the study. Findings suggest that cooperative policy, most notably the mandatory inclusion of high numbers of women in cooperative decision-making, is helping to promote strong agricultural institutions as well as sustainable economic development.
Highlights
Rwanda has undergone an enormous transformation since the 1994 Genocide, in which between 600,000 and 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were murdered and virtually all of its governmental institutions were destroyed (For a full review of the socio-political history of the region and discussion of the Rwandan Genocide see Prunier’s (2008) Africa’s world war: Congo, the Rwandan genocide, and the making of a continental catastrophe)
This paper focuses on the level of trust of cooperative members in the various organizations involved in the project, including the input suppliers - private seed and fertilizer companies, the Rwandan Cooperative Development Agency, and the cooperatives themselves, as well as the relationship between members’ trust of those organizations and their overall satisfaction with their cooperatives
The analysis presented above provides some clarification of the mixed reviews of the Rwandan cooperative model
Summary
Rwanda has undergone an enormous transformation since the 1994 Genocide, in which between 600,000 and 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were murdered and virtually all of its governmental institutions were destroyed (For a full review of the socio-political history of the region and discussion of the Rwandan Genocide see Prunier’s (2008) Africa’s world war: Congo, the Rwandan genocide, and the making of a continental catastrophe). In the almost two and a half decades following the genocide, ambitious government policies aimed to combat poverty and bring Rwanda into the global economy have been implemented. These policies, especially as they pertain to food production, along with support from international donors, have produced significant economic gains in a relatively short period of time. Legislation requires that 30% of the representative government consists of women One hope from this is to increase the influence of women in national and local governance, which has seen some success (Burnet 2008). To put this in perspective, the World Bank (2018) ranks Rwanda first according to the percentage of women in parliaments in the world in 2018 – a title Rwanda
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