The Impact of Agricultural Extension Services Delivery on Farmer Livelihood Empowerment in Rwanda; Evidence from the Land Use Consolidation Policy (Crop Intensification Programme) Case Study Muhoza Sector Musanze District

Abstract

It is now over eight years since the LUC-CIP programme was set up by the ministry of agriculture. Among its key principles is farmer empowerment. Therefore, this study intends to assess the extent to which the delivery of agricultural extension services under the LUC-CIP programme has empowered the farmers. However, in order to achieve this, it is imperative to establish how extension services are delivered in the study area and also identify other farmer empowerment programmes being or ever implemented in the study area so as to control possible confounders. Using a sample of 135 respondents that have been drawn from 14 villages (Imudugudu) out of 46 that make up Muhoza sector , the researcher have assessed the empowerment levels of both farmers who are participating in the LUC-CIP programme, and those who are not. In order to get a representative sample, a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique has been used in the selection of both the villages and respondents.

A researcher administered questionnaire has been used to collect data from farmers while an interview guide has been used to collect data from the key informants and an observation checklist to get information regarding farming practices of farmers. data have been analyzed using SPSS ,Descriptive statistics, Chi-square and regression analysis the study revealed that the majority of the farmers who were participating in the CIP programme were performing better than their counterparts on several indicators of empowerment, implying that the delivery of agricultural extension services under the CIP programme has been instrumental in the empowerment of farmers. It was further revealed that some farmers who were not participating in the CIP programme were also empowered in some areas as a result of programmes like liberalization of the economy, UPE and USE, civic education programmes some relative prominence. It was concluded that while the delivery of agricultural extension services under the CIP programme has been paramount in the empowerment of farmers, some others factors can never be negated.

From all the above, the researcher recommends that periodic programme review not only in Muhoza sector, but also other areas in RWANDA should be done, and that the programme implementation should put practical emphasis on gender issues in order to ensure that the programme empowers both male and female farmers equitably. This study, if anything, has shown that the link from reducing food losses and/or waste to food security and welfare for producers and consumers is not as straightforward as the literature seems to suggest using standard economic theory. Many factors are shown to play a role, which should be taken on board by further applied research to investigate broader societal impacts. This would greatly improve the information base for policy making, which is currently being driven by mere considerations of the size of food losses and waste, not their impacts on society, and in turn focuses too much on addressing the size of the problem, thereby often ignoring the underlying causes. It would allow for better targeted policies and resources being devoted to areas where impacts are shown to be most beneficial.