Farmers can now acquire a new coffee variety (RABC15 variety of Coffea Arabica) which starts yielding two years after planting, as opposed to the current varieties where farmers start harvesting after three years- this development is expected to boost Rwanda’s coffee sector. The new variety is said to be disease resistant and more productive, and is expected to increase coffee production in the country as well as fetch more revenues for farmers, according to Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB). It was developed through the partnership of the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), the National Agriculture Exports Development Board (NAEB), through the Project for Rural Income through Exports (PRICE). Dr. Simon Martin Mvuyekure (Ph.D.), Ag. Senior Research Fellow and Traditional Export Crops Programme Coordinator at RAB told The New Times that the RABC15 variety of Coffea Arabica was released eight years after various experiments on its resilience against major coffee diseases namely; coffee leaf rust and coffee berry disease, as well as adaptability to major agroecological conditions of Rwanda. According to experts from RAB, the variety would solve the issue of 40 percent of coffee produce lost to diseases. Also, it will be able to increase coffee yield per tree by over 20 per cent. “Additionally, the variety matures early compared to traditional commercial varieties,” he said. For quality, he said that this new variety has an overall score above 85 percent (specialty coffee), making it the top quality coffee in the country. The variety was released in 2015, while the mother garden was made in 2018 [to produce best planting materials to be given to farmers], Mvuyekure said, adding that RAB currently has capacity to distribute enough seeds to farmers. Currently, he said that there is a production capacity of five tonnes (or 5,000 kilogrammes) of clean seeds which is equivalent to at least 15 million trees of the new variety every year. This amount of trees can be planted on 6,000 hectares of coffee every year. This means that there will be enough trees of this new variety to replace around 40,000 hectares of coffee plantations which are in Rwanda in four years, if all farmers were to adopt it. However, he said that it is not advisable that a country has one coffee variety, indicating that diversification is needed so as to have a backup in case one has failed because of various factors. He said that RAB in partnership with NAEB organised training of private coffee seeds multipliers in which public institutions and private stakeholders affirmed to work collectively in developing a framework for the harmonisation of seed production and nursery development, to facilitate seed distribution across the country and to boost sector productivity. Farmers want access to variety for more yields Fulgence Sebazungu, the president of the Rwanda Coffee Cooperatives Federation (RCCF) told The New Times that farmers need this relatively quick maturing coffee variety in order to get increased income. “In terms of volumes, Rwanda is not among the major coffee producing countries such as Brazil, Colombia, or even Ethiopia. What the country is selling is quality coffee. So, it is laudable that this new coffee variety gives yield earlier and has great quality,” he said. He appreciated the fact that this early-maturing variety is available during this period when Rwanda is replacing old coffee varieties with new ones, in order to increase yields. Information from NAEB indicates that 30 per cent of the 100 million coffee trees in the country – or about 30 million trees – are old and need replacement. Coffee trees are classified as old when they are at least 30 years old. As a result, their productivity drops significantly. “Coffee production has been declining for the old trees. Having this new quality variety to replace them is an opportunity for farmers,” Sebazungu said. Every year, the Government plans for more than 3.7 million coffee seedlings that are grown on 1,500 hectares, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente told legislators last month during a Parliamentary session on government actions related to agriculture inputs. It is to note that the price of coffee at the international market rose by 59 per cent to $5.9 a kilogramme last week from $3.7 kilogramme in the previous year. Thanks to the rise in prices on the international market, in February this year, the minimum price at which quality coffee cherries are bought from farmers was increased by a significant 65 per cent from Rwf248 a kilogramme last year, to Rwf410 a kilogramme. In the 2020-2021 fiscal year, Rwanda exported more than 16.8 million kilogrammes of coffee which generated over $61.5 million, representing an increase of 1.83 per cent, compared to $60.4 million that was earned from exporting more than 19.7 million kilogrammes of coffee in the previous fiscal year. The country targets production of 31,000 tonnes of green coffee and $95 million revenues by 2024, according to data from NAEB. There are about 400,000 coffee farmers in Rwanda, who depend on the crop for their livelihoods.
