How Might We Motivate Coffee Growers to Invest More in Their Plantations?
May 3, 2016 - Author: AGLC Team
Backgrounder 3: How might we motivate coffee growers to invest more in their plantations? May 2016
KEY ISSUES
1. Paradox: Coffee productivity in Rwanda is among the lowest in the world, yet international buyers consistently rate its coffees among the very best in the world, easily on par, or even above, coffees produced elsewhere in the East Africa region.
2. How much does it cost farmers in Rwanda to produce their coffee (cost of production -- CoP)? The cost of production in Rwanda, including household and wage labor, inputs and equipment, totals 177 RWF/Kg of cherry.
3. At 177 RWF/Kg the cost of production is high relative to what farmers are paid for their cherry, so a large proportion of growers suffer net losses in coffee (over one third in 2015). These farmers would make more working as agricultural wage laborers on the farms of other, more productive farms.