SOUTHERN PROVINCE

HUYE — A team comprising of district and provincial leaders has started peer evaluation exercise of coffee plantations in the Province, in a bid to promote quality production.

District leaders have set up teams from amongst themselves that will traverse the Province to evaluate progress made in the cultivation of coffee- a major cash crop in the Province.

The team composed of districts’ vice mayors in charge of economic affairs, and agricultural officers, will award marks to best farmers during the evaluation exercise.

On Tuesday, a team led by vice mayors of Kamonyi and Muhanga districts visited Huye district, where they toured different coffee plantations, coffee washing stations and a specialty coffee testing laboratory in Maraba Sector.

Jacques Rutsinga, the vice mayor of Kamonyi district, said the evaluation exercise is also a learning opportunity for participating districts.

He said: "We are looking at the progress made by the district in promoting coffee cultivation. We are also learning from their experiences and we will advise them where necessary.”

"We are mainly examining the efforts being done to make the coffee business lucrative to the local farmer on the hill,” he added.

Coffee farmers who have grouped themselves in cooperatives earn Frw120 from a kilogram of raw coffee. They have received training in better coffee growing and processing techniques.

They have also received support from the Sustainable Partnerships to enhance Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Business Development project (SPREAD), in form of training and provision of special coffee transporting bicycles at a low cost.

According to Patrice Hagumamahoro, a private coffee farmer, the coffee business has been lucrative.

"I hope to produce at least seven kilograms of coffee from each coffee tree. I expect to begin harvesting coffee beans in two years’ time,” he said.

Hagumamahoro has cultivated coffee on over 27 hectares of land. According to Ildefonse Gasana, the Huye district vice mayor in charge of economic affairs, coffee farmers can offer their coffee farms as guarantee for bank loans.

"Besides growing coffee, farmers can engage in other income generating activities using loans from banks because their coffee farms act as collateral security,” he said.

Rwanda has embarked on a drive to improve  the quality of its coffee by insisting on fully washed coffee beans this year.

To achieve this, over 200 coffee washing stations have been set up. They are expected to produce 35,000 tons of fully washed coffee. The washed product fetches twice the price of unwashed coffee. 

It sells as gourmet coffee to the likes of Starbucks for as much as $3.50 per Kilogram. The Peer Coffee evaluation exercise, an initiative of the Provincial authorities, is expected to be conducted in all the eight districts across the Province. Results of which will be released this month.

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