Agricultural Systems in Rwanda
Senior 2 · Geography and Environment
Agricultural Systems in Rwanda
Lesson 2 of 4
22 min
On one hill a family grows beans, maize, bananas and cassava together on half a hectare. On the next, a tea estate stretches for kilometres in neat green rows. In the valley below, a cooperative floods its rice fields from a canal. These are different farming systems: ways of organising land, labour, capital and technology. Each has its own strengths and problems.
| System | How it works | Strengths and weaknesses |
|---|---|---|
| Bush fallowing | A plot is cultivated for a few years, then left to rest (fallow) so that natural vegetation restores its fertility, while the farmer uses another plot | Needs no fertiliser, but it needs a lot of land. It has almost disappeared in Rwanda because of land shortage. |
| Mixed cropping (intercropping) | Two or more crops grown together on the same plot, such as beans under maize or beans between bananas | Spreads risk, covers the soil and uses land fully; beans add nitrogen. Hard to mechanise. |
| Smallholder farming | Small family farms, mostly well under one hectare, worked by hand with hoes and machetes | Low cost and flexible, but yields are low, there is little surplus, and it relies on family labour |
| System | How it works | Rwandan example |
|---|---|---|
| Plantation farming | A large estate growing a single cash crop (monoculture), with its own factory, hired workers and much capital | Tea estates with factories on the high western and northern slopes; smallholders nearby sell leaf to the same factories |
| Irrigation farming | Water is supplied by canals, dams or pumps, so crops can grow in the dry season or on dry land | Marshland rice schemes (Bugarama, Bugesera, Nyagatare); hillside irrigation in the east |
| Market gardening | Intensive growing of vegetables and fruit near towns for daily sale | Vegetables grown around Kigali, Musanze and Rubavu for urban markets |
| Horticulture | High-value fruit, vegetables and flowers, often in greenhouses, graded and packed for export | Cut flowers, avocados and chillies flown to Europe and the Middle East |
Before land consolidation, a group of farmers harvested maize at 1.5 tonnes per hectare. After consolidating 2.5 ha and using improved seed and fertiliser, they harvested 10 tonnes. Calculate the new yield and the percentage increase.
The figures are illustrative, but they show why modern methods matter on scarce land: more food from the same hectare.
Tip
Memory hook. Traditional = "small, mixed, by hand"; modern = "large or intensive, specialised, with capital". For any system, give: how it works, a Rwandan example, one advantage and one problem.
Solution: leaving land to rest to regain fertility; rare because of land shortage.
Solution: it spreads risk (if one crop fails, the other may succeed) and beans add nitrogen to the soil (also better soil cover).
Solution: tea leaves must be processed within hours of picking, before they spoil.
Solution: 6 ÷ 1.5 = 4 tonnes per hectare.
Solution: intensive growing of vegetables and fruit near towns for sale in urban markets.
Summary
Sources and credits
The farming-system tables, the worked example and the practice items are written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
