Problems and Solutions of Agriculture in Rwanda
Senior 2 · Agriculture
Problems and Solutions of Agriculture in Rwanda
Lesson 3 of 4
24 min
Let's begin
Rwanda cannot make more land. The only way to feed a growing population is to produce more food from each hectare while protecting the soil and water that produce it. That is the aim of three large national efforts you can see in almost every district: terraces on the hillsides, consolidated blocks of a single crop, and irrigation in the valleys and on the dry plains of the East.
In this lesson you will learn how each works, what problem it solves, and what it costs.
A terrace is a level or nearly level step cut across a hillside along the contour (a line joining points of equal height). Each step slows runoff, so rain soaks in instead of racing downhill with the soil. Before choosing a method, a farmer or agronomist measures how steep the slope is.
Worked example
measuring a slope. A field rises 15 m in height over a horizontal distance of 60 m.
Slope (%) = vertical rise ÷ horizontal distance × 100 = 15 ÷ 60 × 100 = 25%.
| Radical (bench) terraces | Progressive terraces | |
|---|---|---|
| How they are made | Built all at once: soil is cut from the upper part of each strip and filled into the lower part to make a level bench. The steep face between benches (the riser) is planted with grass. | Contour lines are first marked across the slope with pegs. A trench is dug along each line and the soil thrown uphill to form a bank, which is planted with grass or fodder shrubs. Soil washed down the slope collects behind each strip, so the land levels itself over several years. |
| Advantages | Stops erosion at once; holds water; allows intensive cropping and even irrigation. | Cheap and quick; needs little labour; the grass on the banks feeds zero-grazed cattle. |
| Disadvantages | Costly and very labour-intensive; exposes infertile subsoil, so manure, compost and lime are needed for the first seasons; needs deep soil; a badly built terrace can collapse. | Takes years to level; the strips take some land out of crops; gives less protection on steep slopes. |
A rough guide to matching the method to the slope (illustrative: always follow the local agronomist's advice, because soil depth matters as much as slope):
Terraces work best alongside other measures: agroforestry trees planted along the contours; cut-off drains dug above a field to lead runoff safely away; cover crops and mulch; replanting trees on hilltops; and moving families out of zones at high risk of landslides.
Worked example
labour for radical terraces (illustrative figures). If building radical terraces takes about 400 person-days per hectare, a public works team of 40 people needs 400 ÷ 40 = 10 days for each hectare, or 30 days for 3 ha. This is why terraces are often built through community work and paid public works rather than by one family alone.
In many countries, land consolidation means rearranging scattered parcels so that each owner receives one larger block of equal value. Rwanda chose a different approach, land use consolidation, introduced from 2008 as part of the Crop Intensification Programme: farmers keep ownership of their own plots, but neighbouring farmers agree to grow the same selected crop, in one block, at the same time and with the same practices.
The crop is chosen to suit the area, for example maize on the plains of the East, Irish potatoes on the volcanic soils of the North-West, and rice in irrigated marshlands. Seed and fertiliser are delivered to the whole block, planting, weeding and spraying are done together, and the harvest is sold together, usually through a cooperative.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| The block works like one large farm, yet nobody loses land. Inputs, advice and pest control reach the whole block at once. Machines and ox-ploughs can work across many plots. Buyers can collect large, uniform lots. A 2025 IFPRI study found that consolidation, irrigation, extension services and secure land ownership all raise farmers' efficiency. Rwandan smallholders in the study produced only about 45% of the output they could have. | Each family grows fewer crops, so its diet may become less varied. A pest or disease can sweep through a whole block of one crop. If the crop fails, every farmer in the block loses at once. Farmers lose some freedom to choose what to grow; intercropping and traditional varieties decline. |
Worked example
30 neighbours each own 0.15 ha. Together they form a block of 30 × 0.15 = 4.5 ha. At an illustrative fertiliser rate of 100 kg per hectare, the block needs 4.5 × 100 = 450 kg, which is 450 ÷ 50 = 9 bags of 50 kg, delivered in one trip and applied on the same day.
Irrigation is supplying water to crops by artificial means when rain is not enough. It protects crops during droughts, especially in the East; it allows a third growing season, Season C, in the long dry season from about June to August; and it lets farmers grow high-value vegetables and fruit for sale.
Worked example
rain from a roof. One millimetre of rain falling on one square metre gives one litre of water.
Challenges: dams, pumps and pipes are costly; pumps need fuel or electricity; channels silt up if not maintained; neighbours may quarrel over water; and draining wetlands can harm the environment. Draining the Rugezi wetland for crops and grazing, together with below-average rainfall, lowered the water in Lakes Burera and Ruhondo from 1990 onwards; by 2004 their levels had fallen by about half, and the hydropower stations they fed were producing far less electricity.
Tip
Memory hook: "Steps for slopes, blocks for bits, water for dry spells": terraces for eroding hillsides, land use consolidation for small scattered plots, irrigation for droughts.
Exam technique: when asked to suggest a solution, name the method, say how it works and which problem it solves: "Progressive terraces: grass strips along the contour trap soil washed down the slope, reducing erosion."
A field rises 9 m over a horizontal distance of 45 m. Calculate its slope as a percentage.
Solution: 9 ÷ 45 × 100 = 20%.
Give two advantages and one disadvantage of radical terraces compared with progressive terraces.
Solution: Advantages: they stop erosion at once; they hold water and allow intensive cropping or irrigation. Disadvantage (any one): they cost much more labour and money; they expose infertile subsoil that needs manure and lime; they need deep soil.
How does Rwanda's land use consolidation differ from land consolidation as practised in many other countries?
Solution: Elsewhere, land consolidation rearranges ownership so that each farmer gets one larger block. In Rwanda's land use consolidation, farmers keep their own plots, and only the use is shared: neighbours grow the same crop in one block at the same time.
24 farmers, each owning 0.25 ha, form a consolidated maize block. What is the area of the block, and how many 50 kg bags of fertiliser does it need at an illustrative 100 kg per hectare?
Solution: Area = 24 × 0.25 = 6 ha. Fertiliser = 6 × 100 = 600 kg; 600 ÷ 50 = 12 bags.
A school roof measures 120 m² and the yearly rainfall is 1,000 mm. If 80% of the rain is collected, how many litres is that?
Solution: 120 × 1,000 = 120,000 litres fall on the roof; 0.8 × 120,000 = 96,000 litres.
Summary
Sources and credits
The Rwandan examples, worked examples and practice questions are written by Ganzaa. The comparison of radical and progressive terraces and the description of Rwanda's land use consolidation are written by Ganzaa. Figures are rounded and were checked against the sources listed here in September 2026; figures marked "illustrative" are examples, not official statistics.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
