Millennium Villages Blog

Patrice's children in the courtyard surrounded by cassava

Patrice Nsihimymihigo’s small courtyard is covered with cassava. Sitting around it, women peel the brown roots and throw them back milky white onto the pile. Soon, his buyers, Rwandan middlemen, will whisk away his harvest to sell it at the border with Burundi.

Patrice is one of many smallholders in the Mayange Millennium Village, 40 km South of Kigali, who have been selling off their cassava and increasing their income. The trend started in early 2009, following the drought that hit at the end of 2008 northern Burundi, which lies 15 km south of Mayange, or a two hour bicycle ride. At the time, the World Food Program (WFP) had estimated that tens of thousands of people faced food shortage in the neighboring country. The bumper harvest in Mayange, obtained thanks to improved cassava cuttings distributed by the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), was an attractive alternative for failing crops in Burundi. The trade reached a peak in June-July.

Patrice’s wife peeling fresh cassava

"Middlemen load their bicycles with cassava, carrying on average 150kg, and head off to the boarder market," explains Aloys Hakizimana, an agriculture expert at the Mayange MVP, adding that the kilo fetches 60 Rwandan Francs for fresh cassava and 150 Rwf for dried ones (10 to 26 cents). Mayange’s farmers harvest 595 hectares of cassava, with a minimum return of 25 tons per hectare. Some of it goes to household consumption and the rest is sold.

Over the first none months of the year, this trade generated 480,000 Rwf (more than 840$) for Patrice, in a country where the average income per capita is about 380$ per year. With this, the 37-year-old farmer supports a family of eight. This year, he also bought a cow, rabbits and pigs, and has started a small vegetable garden that allows him to sell tomatoes.

Patrice peeling cassava

Yet, just four years ago, Patrice’s family, as many others in this community of 20,000 people, was facing a dire situation. "In 2005, when the rains failed, I had no cassava production. Now with the mosaic disease resistant plants, I harvest enough to feed my family, sell my crop and improve our living conditions," says Patrice.

"The quantities of cassava sold to Burundi are very big," explains Celestin Ndahayo, president of the Mayange cassava cooperative Twitezimbere Kagenge ‘Kotka’.

According to him, an organized yet unofficial trade was put in place in June-July, involving 100 middlemen on bicycles buying Burundi-destined cassava from the village twice a week. "With the money they get from this trade, people are able to pay school fees and health coverage, as well as improve their housing and their diet," he adds.

The coop, set up in July 2007, counts more than 400 members and is planned to start a flour processing plant by the end of October.

Cassava processing plant due to open in October

"The MVP invested $70,000 in the plant, a sum that the coop will pay back over a six-year period to the Mayange community development fund," says Donald Ndahiro, the MVP team leader.

With this new facility, the coop members hope to sell their product at a higher price and increase their profits.

C.J. Jones, the MVP East and Southern Africa’s Business Development Expert, explains: "It’s a great business. People know how to grow cassava and it has a double market, fresh and flour. The processing plant will be a platform for expansion and development."

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