The Impact of Maize Post-Harvest Management Practices on Smallholder farmers’ Income in Bugesera District, Rwanda

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue V, May 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Impact of Maize Post-Harvest Management Practices on Smallholder farmers’ Income in Bugesera District, Rwanda

Emmanuel NZEYIMANA
 PhD Scholar in Development Studies, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya

Abstract:-The Govt of Rwanda has given a priority to maize production in the country’s marshlands and hillsides in regions where this crop can be grown as recommended by the crop intensification program (CIP ), over the last decade huge investments were done in agricultural infrastructures; swamp reclamation, irrigation systems etc…Bugesera District in Eastern part of Rwanda is one of the regions that grow maize at large scale; in that region farmers grow maize as a cash crop and they have increased maize production and productivity in the last decade. The development of maize production has boosted the needs in postharvest handling materials and infrastructures for proper postharvest management aiming to meet market conditions for quality, which are among the key determinants for market prices. Governement of Rwanda’s investments in the maize value chains aimed at reducing the poverty through increased income for the smallholder farmers. However, this objective faced a variety of challenges mostly due to poor post-harvest practices that lead to the poor quality of maize, and contribute to the maize post harvest looses that is still high. As the maize produces continued to be dried, stored and processed using inappropriate materials and techniques this has lead to the persisted high maize postharvest losses and affected the quality (moisture content and impurity), hence make locally produced maize to become less competitive at the market compared with the maize imported from the region. The vision of Govt of Rwanda (Vision 2020) of reducing poverty, food insecurity and increase the per capita income to 900 USD in 2020, from 220 USD in year 2000(MINECOFIN, 2000) was constrained by this situation for the smallholder farmers to achieve this target. This research analyzed the issues from a triangulated perspective analysis; firstly the analysis of the gain in prices resulting from small farmers selling their maize produces collectively through the Cooperative, secondly the analysis of the gain resulting from improved maize quality (drying and storage practices) and thirdly the analysis of the gains from the improved primary postharvest practices which increase the maize quality (Shelling, drying, winnowing and sorting) both aiming to increase income at individual small farm holder’s level. The research findings revealed that for the majority (99%) of the farmers, income from maize produces contributes to more than 50% of their annual income: 55% said that income from Maize contributes to more than 75% of their annual income while 44% said that it contributes from 50 to 75% of their annual incomes, making the maize to be their main source of incomes at households’ level. The research has revealed that the majority, 67% of the farmers sell their maize produces collectively through the Cooperative while 33% they do not, majority of farmers 100% don’t have storage and drying facilities at household level: farmers have two options: i) 67% farmers they use “Plastic sheets” for drying the maize and ii) Only 33% of maize produces from small farmers is dried using Cooperative’s drying facilities, this explains the reason of the high maize losses and deterioration of the quality at household level and it explains why a small potion of the maize produce could be sold collectively from known channels like cooperative, reason for the persisted low income from the maize at household level despite of the huge investments already made in the last decade.

Keywords: Maize Post-Harvest, Maize Post-Harvest Management Practices, Smallholder farmers.

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