Pyrethrum: a white flower with significant business potential for Rwanda

Pyrethrum: a white flower with significant business potential for Rwanda:
A little white flower is bringing bright prospects for Rwanda’s economy, and the lives of thousands of small farmers in the process.

Rwanda now produces 15% of the world's pyrethrum.

One of just four major countries (Australia, Kenya, and Tanzania being the others) that grow pyrethrum, a flower refined into a highly demanded, natural, flower-based pesticide, Rwanda has been actively working to revive this once near-collapsed industry, and for good reason. With 70% to 80% of the pure active ingredients, Rwanda’s rich volcanic soil has the potential to produce some of the world’s best pyrethrum.

Last year, Rwanda’s pyrethrum flower production increased from 209 to 700 megatons, while export revenues increased by 380% and global market share surged from 6% to 15%. According to Karisimbi Business Partners, a Kigali-based consulting firm that is working with SOPYRWA, Rwanda’s only pyrethrum refinery, this also significantly contributed to the household incomes of over 8,000 farmers and increased land under pyrethrum cultivation.

A decade ago, Kenya dominated the production of pyrethrum, raking in about 70% of the global trade. Yet over the past six years, mishandling, corruption and delayed payments to farmers has caused a massive drop in Kenyan production. Industry experts claim that Kenya can still make nearly $135 million annually, but only if they renew their focus as well.

When Horizon Group took over SOPYRWA in 2008, the refinery was running at only 6% of installed capacity, producing just 4 metric tons of extract. In just two years, the company was producing 15.8 metric tons of extract.

SOPYRWA is now focusing on re-building the 15,000+ network of small farmers and their families who are key to their supply chain. By re-engaging private cooperatives, which deal directly with the local farmers and serve as collection points for dried pyrethrum, and offering farmers higher prices, immediate payment, and stronger high-yield seeds, SOPYRWA hopes to bring Rwanda’s share of the global pyrethrum market up to 20%. At the same time, SOPYRWA is now developing additional value-added products for the local region through a venture with a UK-based industry partner.

With government backing, and an expansion of global partnerships, SOPYRWA appears poised for another big year. Yet Crockett adds that the growth has as much to do with what SOPYRWA and the Government of Rwanda has done, as with the global market demand itself. Demand still outpaces supply by about 4:1, and the trend towards organic (e.g. anti-synthetic pesticides) coupled with Kenya’s collapsed pyrethrum sector puts Rwanda at a distinct advantage.

Given the ideal climate, both in terms of Rwanda’s improving business environment and its actual soil conditions, the potential for Rwanda’s pyrethrum production and refinement is vast.

Partnership Inception Workshop for the consortium on Control of angular leaf spot disease of citrus in Ghana

13-17 February, 2012, FARA, Accra. The workshop was organised with support from PAERPARD to facilitate a partnership among stakeholders in the citrus industry on the project ‘Control of Angular leaf spot of citrus in Ghana’.

The aim of this project is, to undertake a detailed nationwide survey on the incidence, severity and etiology of the disease in all the citrus growing regions. Disease management strategies (evaluation of some fungicides on the Ghanaian market to select some for control of the disease on already established fields and the study of natural incidence and severity of disease on established fields to select moderately resistant varieties to be considered for new plantations and augmented with the selected fungicides) will be developed with the involvement of farmers and training (farmer field school) will be organized for farmers and extension officers in the affected districts. Quarantine officers at the national borders will also be trained on diagnostic procedures for the identification of the disease.

The stakeholders who participated in the workshop included Scientists from the University of Ghana, Staff from Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Private Enterprises and Citrus Growers and Marketers Association, Input Dealers and an Europearn Research partner from the Valencia Institute of Agricultural Research in Spain. The workshop was facilitated by 2 external facilitators selected and trained by PAEPARD.

Objectives of the workshop included:

1. Familiarise participants with the concepts and processes of PAEPARD
2. To get to know each other better
3. To understand each other’s objectives and perspectives with well defined roles and activities to be carried out by each partner
4. To establish ground rules that will promote mutual understanding among partners
5. To improve the earlier concept notes that was submitted to PAEPARD
6. To develop a joint action plan

Land tenure and international investments in agriculture

Recent literature that estimates the magnitude of land grabbing and/or explores what is driving it, how it is affecting small-scale farmers and what can be done, include “Land tenure and international investments in agriculture” (by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, 2011), “Land and power: the growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land” (Bertram Zagema, 2011), “Land grabbing in Africa and the new politics of food” (Future Agricultures policy brief 41, 2011) and “The great land grab: Rush for world’s farmland threatens food security for the poor” (S. Daniel and A. Mittal, 2009). Land grabbing in Africa: a review of the impacts and policy responses (Oxfam, 2011)

Literature that presents alternatives to international land acquisitions include the “Access to land and the right to food” report (O. de Schutter, 2010), “Responding to land grabbing and promoting responsible investment in agriculture” (IFAD, 2011) and “Alternatives to land acquisitions: Agricultural investment and collaborative business models” (edited by L. Cotula and R. Leonard, 2010). Both the “Development” journal (volume 54, issue 1, 2011) and “The Journal of Peasant Studies” (volume 38, issue 2, 2011) have dedicated a special on land grabbing, and the website of the “International Conference on Global Land Grabbing” (held this year by Future Agricultures) contains articles that cover several aspects of the topic. “A historical perspective on the global land rush” (by the International Land Coalition, 2011) relates the current wave of land grabs to the past legacy of colonisation and neo-liberal reforms.

The African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI) amassed a huge amount of invaluable data

In 2006, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation provided Farm Radio International a grant to support the 42-month African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI), starting in 2007.

After two cycles of carefully planned and delivered, radio program campaigns involving 25 African radio stations in five countries, the AFRRI project amassed a huge amount of invaluable data. It demonstrates clearly that well-designed and produced radio campaigns using participatory methodologies can have a significant impact on the adoption of improved technologies by small-scale farmers on a large scale throughout the broadcast area of each radio station.

The data also demonstrate that such uptake of technologies can be even greater when innovative use of other ICTs, such as mobile phones and the Internet, is combined with the radio broadcasts. We call the methodology we designed and tested a Participatory Radio Campaign (PRC).

What Farm Radio International has learned from the AFRRI project can benefit other development communication initiatives. They have produced three reports that describe in detail what they did, how they did it, and what they learned. They are about Participatory Radio Campaigns, radio-based Market Information Services, and how new ICTs can make radio stronger.

Stakeholder Workshop on Tracking Investments in Agricultural Research for Development

January 20, 2012. Berlin. With clear recognition by the international community that, given the complexities of agricultural research for development (AR4D[2]), each current system of monitoring investments in AR4D only provides part of the overall picture, a technical workshop on tracking investments in AR4D was organized by GFAR in Berlin at GIZ headquarters.

A group of experts from the diverse monitoring systems presently operating, including representatives of the civil society, met to discuss this topic, to identify possible improvements that could be recommended at donor or recipient levels and to integrate and increase coverage and efficiency of the systems and mechanisms in place for tracking information on AR4D programmes and investments.

GFAR worked with the European Initiative on Agricultural Research for Development (EIARD) to develop the background concept for this meeting, which was supported by funds provided by EIARD under its EC-FSTP supported program. GFAR and others are also active in the Research Working Group of the Global Donor Platform (GDPRD) and took advantage of the GDPRD Annual General Assembly in Berlin, 17-18 January 2012 as a timely opportunity to bring together technical specialists, representatives of regional organizations and donors actively involved in GDPRD & EIARD.

Further references

summary_report_stakeholder_workshop_on_tracking_investments_in_agricultural_research_for_development.pdf
eiard_1.4_donor_support_to_caadp_pillar_4_-_phase_1_appendices_with_eu_logo.pdf
eiard_1.4_donor_support_to_caadp_pillar_4_-_phase_1_report_with_eu_logo.pdf
eiard_1.4_donor_support_to_caadp_pillar_4_-_phase_2_report_with_eu_logo.pdf

First PAEPARD Partnership Inception workshop for the Mauritius Breadfruit sector

9th and 10th February 2012. Food and Agricultural Research Council (FARC) Mauritius. The first PAEPARD Partnership Inception workshop for the Mauritius Breadfruit sector consortium was held.

This workshop is supported and is part of the PAEPARD Project, which is facilitating this collaboration among various stakeholders involved in the Breadfruit Sector in Mauritius, as well as European Partners (African-European Partnership). Stakeholders present at the workshop were from Research institutions, the University of Mauritius, farmer organisations, breadfruit exporters, breadfruit growers, the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security (plant protection and propagation) and the private sector. The workshop was facilitated by two external facilitators who have been selected and trained by PAEPARD.

• The overall Objectives of this workshop were for stakeholders to:
• Get to know each other
• Understand PAEPARD
• Appreciate the importance of partnership within the consortium
• Understand and apply the value-chain approach
• Participate actively in different group activities
• Establish a framework for effective partnership

The PowerPoint Presentations presented during the workshop can be viewed below.
Other documents and files related to the workshop have been added to the wiki HERE.

PAEPARD PIW1 (Mauritius) - Presentation1

PAEPARD PIW1 (Mauritius) - Presentation 2

More information is posted on the paepardmauritius-wiki + on the bog of Nawsheen

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