Do Plant Clinics Improve Household Food Security? Evidence from Rwanda

One of the main drivers of food insecurity is pests, which are estimated to cause around 40% of crop losses worldwide. We examine the food security effects of plant clinics, a novel agricultural extension model that aims to reduce crop losses due to pests through the provision of demand‐driven plant health diagnostic and advisory services to smallholder farmers. The study is based on survey data from maize‐growing households in Rwanda, where 66 plant clinics have been established. Using switching regression and matching techniques as well as various food security metrics, including the food insecurity experience scale, we find evidence that participation in plant clinics is significantly associated with a reduction in household food insecurity. For instance, among the participating households, plant clinics contribute to a decrease in the period of food shortage by one month and a reduction in the severity of food insecurity by 22 percentage points. We also show that these effects are more pronounced for female‐headed households. Overall, our findings suggest that plant clinics can play an important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 2 of zero hunger.     

Have coffee producers benefited from the new domestic cherry market? Evidence using panel data from Rwanda

The article assesses the effects of the new domestic cherry market on coffee‐growing households in Rwanda using panel data. Findings from combined first differenced with instrumental variable specification and other estimation methods provide evidence that farmers who sell to the cherry market do not increase their expenditures compared to farmers selling to the traditional parchment market. The different time lags in terms of when farmers started selling to the new cherry market may explain the lack of statistically significant differences across the two groups. It is possible that farmers will adjust their expenditure patterns in subsequent periods after year‐over‐year market trends become more apparent to them.     

On the rim of inspiration: performance of AWF tourism enterprises in Botswana and Rwanda

Community-based natural resource management approaches including joint venture partnerships provide opportunities to achieve biodiversity conservation and associated tourism development. The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) conservation enterprise model aims to improve the quality of life of communities and promote positive local attitudes towards conservation, and has been used to establish conservation lodges. To date, there has been no assessment of the performance of the conservation lodges in relation to this aim. This study used two case study AWF-initiated conservation lodges in Rwanda and Botswana to assess the performance of these conservation enterprises. The study adopted one-on-one structured questionnaire interviews with lodge staff and community residents. Analysis of economic and social performance and attitudes to conservation indicates that rural communities within the vicinity of the conservation lodges are generally benefitting from the existence of the lodges and associated tourism activity although to varying degrees, as well as promoting positive conservation attitudes among the community.     

Poverty Dynamics,Violent Conflict,and Convergence in Rwanda

This paper analyzes the poverty impact of the violent events that affected Rwanda in the 1990s. The main objective of the paper is to identify systematically potential mechanisms linking violent conflict with changes in poverty across provinces and households in Rwanda before and after a decade of violence. In accordance with emerging literature on the long‐term economic effects of violent conflict, we find empirical evidence for economic convergence between richer and poorer Rwandan provinces and households following the conflict shocks. Using a small but unique panel of households surveyed before and after the conflict period, we find that households whose house was destroyed or who lost land ran a higher risk of falling into poverty. We do not find much evidence for an economic effect of violent deaths at the household level due to substitution effects of labor within the household. Non‐violent deaths however seem to increase income per adult equivalent for the survivors. Results are shown to be robust to sample selection and IV models.     

Smallholder cooperatives and agricultural performance in Rwanda: do organizational differences matter?

Agricultural policies in Rwanda focus on agricultural intensification and increased market orientation of the smallholder farm sector. Cooperatives are seen as key vehicles in this, but little is known about their effectiveness to achieve these goals. In this article, we analyze the impact of cooperative membership on the agricultural performance of rural households in Rwanda. We use cross‐sectional survey data, collected in 2012, to analyze the impact of cooperative membership on different agricultural performance indicators, including indicators on agricultural intensification, market orientation, farm revenue, and income. We use several econometric techniques to deal with potential selection bias in estimating the impact of cooperative membership, including a proxy variable method based on a willingness to pay measure and propensity score matching methods. We find that cooperative membership in general has a positive impact on farm performance but these effects are driven by specific types of cooperatives.     

The role of the entrepreneurial university in building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in a post conflict economy: An exploratory study of Rwanda

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the entrepreneurial university in supporting the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in a post conflict, transitional economy. We developed a cross case analysis to identify common themes and patterns in the data. Our findings demonstrate that in a post conflict, transitional economy entrepreneurial universities entrepreneurial ecosystem development is constrained by a number of institutional factors including, structures, systems, leadership, strategies, and culture. We further identify that, when an entrepreneurial ecosystem system has been destroyed during conflict, these constraints present significant challenges to the evolution of the entrepreneurial ecosystem post conflict. Second, in a departure from other studies, our findings also outline the role of the entrepreneurial university in the unique evolution of the post conflict entrepreneurial ecosystem in Rwanda. We identify that the entrepreneurial ecosystem evolves through a number of stages including, embryonic, destruction, formation, and capacity building stages.     

Volunteer tourism: On-the-ground observations from Rwanda

Volunteer tourism is the combination of leisure travel and voluntary work. Although it is increasing in popularity, one area that remains underexplored in the literature is the centrality of project facilitators in the on-the-ground experiences of volunteer tourists. This study, therefore, interrogates the relationship between facilitation and implementation of volunteer tourism experiences and the volunteer tourists’ lived experiences. By placing in conversation on-the-ground volunteer tourism experiences in Nyakinama, Rwanda with current literature in volunteer tourism, this study finds that volunteer tourism is a gratifying experience, especially as it relates to self-development, bonding with local people and experiencing of local lifestyle. The study, however, suggests that certain managerial actions and transparency measures must be introduced so as to maximize the social role of volunteer tourism.     

Discipline,Governmentality and ‘Developmental Patrimonialism’: Insights from Rwanda's Pyrethrum Sector

An ongoing academic debate examines the implications of ‘developmental patrimonialism’ for African citizens. Rwanda is a key case study in this debate, with proponents of developmental patrimonialism and ‘party capitalism’ arguing that companies owned by the ruling party or the military play positive roles in economic development. This debate often focuses on macro‐level, elite politics. This paper instead uses a Foucauldian lens to examine the micro‐level politics of pyrethrum production in Rwanda, which is managed by a military‐owned company. The company utilizes incentive‐based governmental strategies, in line with state discourses, in addition to punitive, disciplinary regimes. The paper demonstrates that state agricultural strategies depend on multiple factors, including multi‐scale political tensions between the ruling party's desire for control and its discourse of ‘entrepreneurship’.