Pyrethrum farmers say they are ready to sustain pyrethrum production on their own since a project that has closely supported them over the last six years closed shop on Wednesday.

The project, dubbed Rwanda Pyrethrum Program (RPP), has been supporting pyrethrum growers in Musanze, Nyabihu and Rubavu districts to boost production since 2009.

Marceline Nyiramajyambere, a pyrethrum farmer in Kinigi, Muzanze District, said she is ready to keep on growing the crop.

"Before RPP came we could harvest only 100 kilogrammes on four hectares, but currently, due to the best farming practices I learnt from RPP I can harvest as much as 700 kilogrammes on the same piece of land. I cannot avoid growing pyrethrum since I have already benefited from the crop,” she said.

Josephine Nyirabwende, another pyrethrum farmer in Kinigi, said pyrethrum is the main source of livelihood for her family.

"I cannot abandon pyrethrum since my family’s daily survival depends on it. It helps me raise school fees for my children and meet other family expenses; I can also now easily access a loan from Sacco due to the crop. It is such an important source of family income I cannot afford to lose it,” Nyirabwende said, as her son Juvens Hakizimana nodded in approval.

Fabien Sibomana, the president of the union of Rwandan pyrethrum farmers, said the support they got from RPP laid a strong foundation for farmers to eventually become self reliant.

"Before RPP came in we were disorganised and most of our cooperatives were counting losses every year due to mismanagement and embezzlement of cooperative funds,” he said.

For instance, he added, in 2012, they suffered a loss of about Rwf15 million whereas last year ‘we made Rwf80 million in profit.’

"This is due to extensive training in cooperative management thanks to RPP,” Sibomana said.

We are currently equipped with knowledge and skills to ensure our cooperatives become even more profitable, he added.

Jean Claude Kayisinga, the chief of party for Rwanda Pyrethrum Programme, challenged farmers to make the most of what they had learnt from the project to better their lives and impact national development.

"We offered them various trainings such as leadership training for members of the boards of directors and managers; book-keeping training and business planning for accountants and managers; and internal audit training for supervisory committees, presidents (of cooperatives) and managers,” he said.

He added that they had also trained 5,265 cooperative members in their rights and obligations.

"We also want them to use the knowledge to venture into other income-generating projects but, mostly, the knowledge must be used to assure quality management of their cooperatives so that they cannot fall again into bankruptcy as they used to be,” Kayisinga said.

The USAID-backed $2.4 million project assisted 5,000 households from the northern and western pyrethrum growing regions of Rwanda through extensive trainings, on best farming practices and business practices as well as increased access to new technologies identified through research on pyrethrum production, soil fertility and pest management, according to the project.

It helped pyrethrum growers improve both in quality and quantity.

Currently, Rwanda has over 30,000 pyrethrum farmers grouped in seven cooperatives that produce four metric tonnes of pyrethrum every month, amounting to 48 metric tonnes annually up from 30 metric tonnes in 2009.

While Rwanda’s soils and climate are said to be ideal for delicate white chrysanthemum flowers that can be processed into pyrethrum, production is said to be difficult, especially the drying stage, making the production process highly delicate.

Pyrethrum, a plant in the chrysanthemum family, is a natural insecticide. It is a highly effective insecticide, which has been used for centuries against different types of insect pests.

RPP was a collaborative project between USAID, SC Johnson, a global manufacturer of household cleaning and pest control products, and the Government of Rwanda.