The project seeks to increase vegetables production, postharvest handling and marketing with emphasis on the promotion of regenerative agriculture practices and the consumption of healthy, sustainable, and nutritious foods. In partnership with Rikolto, Kilimo Trust and ADECOR, the project aims to structure an inclusive urban food market by providing support in the development of national guidance on healthy, sustainable, and nutritious diets in the cities. The project also focuses on creating an enabling environment through advocacy and facilitating urban food governance processes.
With its productive agricultural land and moderate climate, the Rubavu District is the centre of vegetable production in Rwanda. The majority of those are small plats, owned by smallholder farmers. The region is characterised by a heavy population pressure on available land. For this reason, horticulture provides one of the best sources for healthy, sustainable, and nutritious food. However, horticultural production faces several challenges, including limited availability of high-quality seeds, traditional farming methods and technologies, limited sustainable practices in agriculture, inadequate extension services, and excessive use of agro-chemicals to boost production.
Access to suitable infrastructure, such as storage facilities and transportation networks, is a challenge for vegetable buyers and sellers, particularly in rural areas. This leads to high post-harvest losses, reducing the overall income for farmers and increasing prices for consumers.
Limited compliance to safety regulations in the vegetables market also compromises food quality. Ensuring that the supply chain is in line with safety standards is critical for maintaining the quality and safety of vegetables, protecting public health, and fostering a more reliable and efficient market system.
Rikolto works towards a sustainable income for farmers and collective accessibility to nutritious, affordable food by building bridges between smallholder farmer organisations, companies, local authorities, and other actors across rural and urban areas. With inclusive business facilitation as its focus, Rikolto and its partners strive to develop innovative ways of producing, distributing, and accessing nutritious quality food, so no one is left behind.
The project will professionalise farmer cooperatives and other business development service providers to support vegetables production, postharvest handling, and marketing. We will promote regenerative and resilient production practices, such as minimum tillage, mulching, crop rotation and use of compost. In addition, the capacity of smallholder farmers will be built on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) of vegetables by focusing on Integrated Pest and Diseases Management (IPM), Integrated Soil and Fertility Management (ISFM).
We will establish kitchen gardens and demonstration sites for regenerative and resilient production practices. Additionally, we will introduce compost pits for enriching soil nutrient, soil structure improvement, microbial activity boost, and waste recycling. Most importantly, we will introduce carbon sequestration to build healthy and resilient soils and reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
The project will contribute to a 20% increase in incomes and job creations for 2,000 smallholder producers of health, sustainable, and nutritious foods in Rubavu District. This will be achieved through the establishment of 4 commercial enterprises that will market 1,000 MT annually of healthy, sustainable, and nutritious foods especially vegetables.
The project will establish trading agribusiness linkages and undertake capacity building. Value chain actors will engage in demonstration plots activities on regenerative agriculture practices, aggregation improving, postharvest handling, market platforms strengthening and quality assurance.
The project will develop a “Nutrition Awareness Communication Strategy”, which adopts a lifecycle approach prioritizing early childhood development, school-going children, and adolescents. It also accentuates the importance of leadership and appropriate governance for achieving optimal food security and enhanced nutritional status for all Rwandans.
.jpg)