Eastern Province marks Coffee Day

KIREHE–Women coffee growers in Eastern province have commended government’s efforts in empowering women. Through government empowerment programmes, coffee growing is no longer an exclusive men activity, as it used to be in traditional Rwanda, they said.This was disclosed during the launch of a Coffee Day in Eastern Province, in Kirehe District yesterday.According to Corneille Ntakirutimana of National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB), the Day was held in Kirehe, because the district contributed a lot to the country’s high quality coffee production.Theopiste Nyiramahoro, a renowned female coffee grower in the Province, said that the old times were characterised by harsh gender inequalities in the field, adding that women never had access to high cash earning crops.“Women in Rwanda were traditionally seen as workers and mothers, not as decision-makers or landowners. It was part of the culture that women were just for having children”. Nyiramahoro noted that women formed coffee growing cooperatives that were doing well in the country.She said that the fact that women owned land was a landmark change in the society of Rwanda.She noted that her successes benefited the whole family, adding that it was a persuasive argument for the husband to cede land to her.“Coffee income is greater...I am developing very fast. I eased my movement by buying a motorcycle. Recently, I bought a big lorry to carry coffee and other crops to markets, remember I started from scratch,” she reflected. Aimable Sibomana a member of COCAMU Coffee cooperative observed that women met together independently to talk business, and the men were no longer preventing them from doing so.“The Coffee Day tells the story; there are more women than usual in coffee growing. We have surpassed traditional beliefs that barred women from owning land and cash crops,” he said.This year, Kirehe district will plant 3 million coffee trees.