Agricultural innovation from above and from below: Confrontation and integration on Rwanda's hills

African Affairs

Volumn 113, Issue 450, 2014, Pages 108-127

  Van Damme, Julie ^a   Ansoms, An ^a   Baret, Philippe V ^a  

^a UNIVERSITÉ CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN   (Belgium)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT; CROPPING PRACTICE; GREEN REVOLUTION; INNOVATION; RURAL AREA; RURAL ECONOMY; SMALLHOLDER; WORLD BANK;

RWANDA;

EID: 84892526430     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adt067     Document Type: Article

References (89)

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11. An Ansoms and Jude Murison, 'De la prospérité à "Sahoudi" à la noyade au "Darfour"': L'histoire d'un marais au Rwanda' Filip Reyntjes, Stef Vandeginste, and Marijke Verpoorten (eds), L'Afrique des Grands Lacs: Annuaire 2011-2012 (L'Harmattan, Paris, 2012) pp. 377-396.
12. Hubert Cochet, Crises et Révolutions agricoles au Burundi (Karthala, Paris, 2010).
13. Interview, employee of MINAGRI-CIP project, 17 February 2011, Kigali. Unless otherwise stated, interviews were conducted in Rwanda.
14. Qualitative data collection relied on comprehensive interviews (2-3 hours). In this way, the sample is varied and represents the diversity of the banana-based cropping systems in the region.
15. To differentiate between the 'traditional' and 'innovative' farmers, we made a typology on the basis of a large sample of farmers (344) previously surveyed by CIALCA (Consortium for Improving Agriculture Based Livelihoods in Central Africa). To refine this typology and increase the diversity of farmers beyond those included in the initial CIALCA sample, we did a preliminary survey (with a sample of 24 farmers) that gathered data on farm characteristics and banana practices (such as intercropping/ monocropping or varieties adopted, and including the ability to innovate). On the basis of this information, we selected a limited sample of more "traditional" and more "innovative" farmers in three sectors. A quantitative agricultural diagnosis completed the characterization of the regional sample.
16. Julie Van Damme, Analyse systémique des processus d'innovation dans les systèmes agraires de la region des Grands Lacs basés sur la culture de banane (Université Catholique de Louvain, unpublished PhD thesis, 2012).
17. In critiquing the concept of 'transfer' or 'diffusion' of an innovation from the conceiver to the farmers, Neils Röling introduces the concept of a 'pathway of innovations', defining this as 'a process of technical and institutional change at farm and higher system levels that impacts on productivity, sustainability and poverty reduction'. Neils Röling, 'Bananas (Musa spp.) and new thinking about pathways for science impact' in T. Dubois et al. (eds), 'Proceedings of International Conference on Banana and Plantain in Africa' ( Mombasa, 2008).
18. Gaëtan Vanloqueren and Philippe V. Baret, 'Systemic "relevance assessment" of transgenic crops: bridging biotechnology regulations and sustainable development policies?', (The 5th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics, Leuven, 2004), pp. 160-164.
19. Eric Mollard, 'L'innovation est-elle risquée?: un point de vue agro-économique' in Jean-Pierre Chauveau, Marie-Christine "Cormier-Salem", and Eric Mollard (eds), L'Innovation en Agriculture: Questions de méthodes et terrains d'observation (A Travers Champs and IRD, Paris, 1999), pp. 43-64.
20. James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1985).
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22. Johan Pottier, 'Three's a crowd: knowledge, ignorance and power in the context of urban agriculture in Rwanda', Africa 59, 4 (1989), pp. 461-77.
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28. As one informant put it: 'The authorities perceive that as drunkenness and lack of hygiene.' Personal communication, Gatore, 17 June 2010.
29. Interview, banana farmers, Kinazi, 23 June 2010.
30. Personal communication, extension officer, Gatore, 28 October 2009.
31. Johan Pottier, 'Stock taking: food marketing reform in Rwanda, 1982-9', African Affairs 92, 366 (1993), pp. 5-30.
32. The banana programme of MINAGRI gives the estimate of 40 RwF/kg for beer bananas, 55. RwF/kg for cooking bananas, and 75 RwF/kg for dessert bananas (2005).
33. Agronomists from the National Agricultural Research Systems (ISAR), a parastatal research institute that provides extension services to agronomists at the level of districts and sectors.
34. Svetlana V. Gaidashova, Suleman H. O. Okech, Clifford S. Gold, and Innocent Nyagahungu, 'Why beer bananas: the case for Rwanda', InfoMusa 14, 1 (2005), p. 2.
35. Interviews, banana farmers, Cibitoke, Burundi, 28 October 2009. Some general considerations on bananas were taken from interviews in the neighbouring countries of Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo.
36. Since 2002, the Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW), a bacterial disease, has ravaged the banana plantations of the Great Lakes region. The spread of this disease has increased since 2011-12. The first varieties affected, as reported by a diagnosis survey in Idjwi (South Kivu, DRC), were dessert varieties such as Kamaramasenge.
37. Varieties from the Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola.
38. Interview, banana farmer, Cibitoke, Burundi, 28 October 2009.
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40. Interview, banana farmer, Musenyi, 3 November 2009.
41. Gaidashova, 'Why beer bananas', p. 5.
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43. Interview, banana farmer, Gatore, 28 October 2009.
44. Interview, banana farmer, Cibitoke, Burundi, 3 November 2009.
45. Gaidashova, 'Why beer bananas', p. 3.
46. Interview, banana farmer, Lurhala, DRC, 18 November 2009.
47. De Lame, A Hill among a Thousand.
48. Interview, banana farmer, Lurhala, DRC, 18 November 2009.
49. Interview, banana farmer, Gatore, 28 November 2009.
50. Scott's terminology in Domination and the Arts of Resistance.
51. Interview, banana farmer, Kinazi, 9 November 2009.
52. Interview, banana farmer, Nzahaha, 27 October 2009.
53. Interview, banana farmer, Gatore, 29 October 2009.
54. Suleman H. Okech, Svetlana V. Gaidashova, C. S. Gold, Celestin Gatarayiha, and P. Ragama, 'Banana pests and diseases in Rwanda: a Participatory Rural Appraisal and diagnostic survey observations' (Proceedings of the Integrated Pest Management Symposium, Kampala, 2002).
55. Of the sampled farmers, 77.4 percent use external labour.
56. J. Van Damme, Analyse systémique des systèmes agraires.
57. Narpat S. Jodha, 'Intercropping in traditional farming systems', Journal of Development Studies 16, 4 (1980), pp. 427-42.
58. Ansoms, 'Views from below on the pro-poor growth challenge'.
59. MINAGRI, 'SPTAII', and IFDC, 'Crop Intensification Programme (2008-2009) - Evaluation Report' (MINAGRI/CIP, 2010).
60. Ansoms, 'Views from below on the pro-poor growth challenge'.
61. Field observations, 2009.
62. Van Damme, Analyse systémique des systèmes agraires.
63. Interview, banana farmer, Gatore, 29 October 2009.
64. Interview, banana farmer, Kinazi, 9 November 2009.
65. Interview, banana farmer, Gatore, 28 October 2009.
66. Interview, banana farmer, Kinazi, 9 November 2009.
67. Sara Berry, No Condition is Permanent: The social dynamics of agrarian change in sub-Saharan Africa (University ofWisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 1993).
68. Interview, banana farmer, Nzahaha, 21 November 2009.
69. Interview, banana farmer, Gatore, 29 October 2009.
70. RADA is the former national Rwanda Agricultural Development Authority, today grouped with ISAR in the RAB, or Rwanda Agriculture Board.
71. Interview, government official, Kigali, 2009.
72. These include the first author of this article in collaboration with other academics at the Université catholique de Louvain, but also development practitioners from CIALCA, and even government officials from within RADA.
73. He pleaded for an improvement in communication between the implementers and the farmers. It seems however that this 'problem in interpretation of the policy' was reinforced by the way in which the administrative system is organized. Local authorities at every level of the administrative chain have to prove through performance contracts how they rigidly implement policies, which encourages them to interpret policies literally without room for adaptation to local conditions.
74. Ansoms and Rostagno, 'Rwanda's Vision 2020 halfway through'.
75. Chauveau, Cormier-Salem, and Mollard, L'Innovation en Agriculture.
76. Personal communication from the banana programme coordinator in ISAR.
77. Interview, banana farmer, Musenyi, 24 June 2010.
78. Daniel C. Clay, 'Fighting an uphill battle: population pressure and declining land productivity in Rwanda' (Working paper, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, 1996).
79. Hubert Cochet, 'Agrarian dynamics, population growth and resource management: the case of Burundi' GeoJournal 60, 2 (2004), pp. 111-20.
80. Cochet, Crises et Révolutions agricoles au Burundi 29, 10 (2009).
81. Interview, banana farmer, Gatore, 2009.
82. Focus group, banana farmer, Musenyi, 24, 6 (2010).
83. Cochet, Crises et Révolution agricoles au Burundi.
84. In an earlier footnote, we mentioned the spread of the BXW disease. Plants are contaminated by bees through infection of the male bud. Therefore, farmers are advised to cut the male bud to prevent the disease from spreading. However, this technique existed 'already before BXW: farmers used to cut or wrap the male bud of the banana plant to prevent [the spread of] diseases' (Personal communication, researcher, UCL). On Idjwi Island (part of DRC, but located in Lake Kivu between DRC and Rwanda), farmers explained during a focus group that 'the Kimojo disease was spread by a butterfly. To combat it, we wrapped the male bud and the elders advised us to brush the bunch with some herbs.' In the case of BXW, farmers explained that the wrapping or cutting of the male bud is not sufficient, as - in contrast to the Kimojo disease - BXWattacks not only the bunch but the entire banana plant.
85. Interview, banana farmer, Kinazi, 9 November 2009.
86. Jacques Lefort, 'Innovation technique et expérimentation en milieu paysan', Les cahiers de la recherche-développement 17 (1988), pp. 1-10.
87. Jean-Michel Yung and Pierre-Marie Bosc, 'Terrains et innovations' in Le Développement agricole au Sahel (CIRAD-DSA, Vol. 4, 1992), pp. 175-264.
88. Pierre Bal, Christian Castellanet, and Didier Pillot, 'Faciliter l'émergence et la diffusion des innovations' in Mémento de l'Agronome (Cirad-Gret-MAE, Paris, 2002), pp. 373-405.
89. Ansoms, 'View from below on the pro-poor growth challenge'.