World Food Programme (WFP) initiated the Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) in 2016 to promote the sustainable pro-smallholder agricultural value chain of maize and beans, intending to increase smallholder’s income and foster commercial viability for private sector actors engaged in the Alliance. Maize is one of the priority crops identified by the government for support in the strategy for agricultural transformation. Maize and Beans play a significant role in Rwanda for food security and commercial potential. Therefore, enhancing the maize and beans value chain represents an accurate and precise option for achieving farmers’ livelihoods.

RDO and RWARRI implement the Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) project in 24 districts to support 83,747 farmers grouped into 247 cooperatives to raise farmers’ production, reduce post-harvest losses and increase marketable surplus.

The project activities include:

• Training of farmers in good agriculture practices (GAP) and post-harvest handling (PHHS),
• Linking farmers’ organizations with viable markets through contract farming with six big buyers; AIF, MINIMEX, EAX, SARURA, RGCC, and Gorilla Feeds.
• Support for post-harvest equipment acquisition,
• Capacity building of cooperatives in good governance and financial management and
• It is linking farmers’ organizations to financial institutions for input and output loans.

The project is being implemented by RWARRI in 10 districts countrywide, Ngoma, Rwamagana, Gasabo, Rulindo, Gakenke, Burera, Gisagara, Huye, Nyaruguru & Nyamagabe with 125 cooperatives regrouping 50,177 farmers, including 24,091 females.

RWARRI receives a grant from FONERWA to implement a project entitled “Improving the smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and climate resilience by using green technologies in Ngoma district.” The project was implemented in partnership with the Ngoma district through the government Programme for Small-Scale Irrigation Technology (SSIT) led by the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB). The project operates in the Zaza and Mutenderi sector of the Ngoma district to establish an irrigation system by setting the solar pumping system and constructing the water reservoirs to improve livelihood and climate resilience for vulnerable groups of smallholder farmers in the community coping with climate change.

Through this green technology project, farmers receive Climate-Smart Agriculture(CSA), gender mainstreaming and social inclusion, organizational skills, and bookkeeping. The project establishes the solar pumping systems, constructs water storage of 500m3 on two sites, and sets up water irrigation networks. The project provides agricultural inputs to farmers for horticultural production, provides fruit seedlings to the farmers, and organizes farmers’ linkage sessions with agro-dealers, buyers, and Financial Institutions.

The project targets 1,500 smallholder farmers with 600 women and 300 youth to produce high-value crops and increase their income using durable and adequate green technologies infrastructures to irrigate 20 hectares.

Following a request from the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), Rwanda Rural Rehabilitation Initiative (RWARRI) implements the Gender Climate Change and Agriculture Support Programme (GCCASP). The project runs in Ngoma district with World Food Program (WFP) funds through the joint Programme Rural Women Economic Empowerment (JPRWEE).

The project aims to support a hundred (100) smallholder women farmers, gathered into two women-dominated cooperatives, build resilience and cope with and adapt to climate change in the Sake sector, Ngoma district in Western province. The project is scheduled to run from April to September 2021.

The main objectives of the project are:

• Promotion of High Iron Beans (HIB) varieties planting to reduce malnutrition and increase farmers income (including post-harvest equipment distribution and demonstration plots establishment)
• Maintain existing irrigation units for both cooperatives to produce in all seasons (including solar system irrigation setting – up for two sites)
• Capacity building in thematic areas of Gender, Agriculture, and Climate Change (involving the creation of cooperatives platform)

The “Embedding Integrated Water Resources Management in Rwanda –EWMR project” is a three-year project from May 2019 to June 2022, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands (EKN) and implemented by the Rwanda Water resources Board (RWB) with Technical Assistance (TA) from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its consortium partners including the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) and Rwanda Rural Rehabilitation Initiative (RWARRI). The project seeks to increase livelihood and conservation benefits in Sebeya (& other) catchments from restoration and improved land management.

The Sebeya River originates in the mountains of Rutsiro District along the Congo Nile Divide, in Western Rwanda. The river flows for over 110km with a catchment area of 286km2 spanning the districts of Rutsiro, Ngororero, Nyabihu, and Rubavu in the Western Province.

The Sebeya River remains very important to Western Rwanda, where smallholder farmers use this river for irrigation, a source of drinking water for many households, and hydroelectric power at the Gihira Power Plant in Rubavu District.

For the past twenty years, hundreds of people in the Western Province including in Sebeya catchment have been displaced and communities massively overwhelmed by Sebeya River floods, a result of poor agriculture practices, deforestation, and unsustainable mining practices upstream to name a few.

In order to attain healthy and productive environments, a landscape approach that identifies and builds on the interdependencies between landscape status, ecosystem service supply, agricultural production, governance, and human wellbeing is required.

The overall goal of the project is to improve catchment management contributing to increased resilience of communities and landscapes to the impacts of climate change and other drivers.

In this regard, the EWMR is a holistically integrated program, focusing on community engagement in work packages that target to:

1. Reduce land and soil degradation, river sedimentation, and flooding.
2. Improve incomes and resilience based on sustainable use of landscape resources.
3. Empower landscape governance and management institutions.
4. Provide evidence-based guidelines for the landscape approach.

The EWMR project is founded on a community participatory-based approach, relying on participation of the local communities in Sebeya catchment in planning, and implementation of the catchment restoration activities.