Revisiting Rwanda's agricultural intensification policy: benefits of embracing farmer heterogeneity and crop-livestock integration strategies
Revisiting Rwanda's agricultural intensification policy: benefits of embracing farmer heterogeneity and crop-livestock integration strategies
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DOI：
10.1007/s12571-021-01241-0
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发表时间：
2022-01-31
期刊：
影响因子：
6.7
通讯作者：
Dawson, Neil M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kim, Sung Kyu;Marshall, Fiona;Dawson, Neil M.
卢旺达政府正在推动农业集约化，重点是生产少量有针对性的商品，将其作为实现经济增长、粮食安全和生计发展的联合政策目标的中心战略。提高土地、农作物和动物资源生产能力的主要办法是通过大规模土地整理、土壤肥力管理以及大量使用生物技术和外部投入。然而，有证据表明，许多卢旺达农民根据其具体的经济、社会和环境情况，采用各种战略和混合耕作方式，难以采取单一的规定办法，成为更具生产力的现代商品生产者。为了实证地探索小农战略的多样性及其对生计的贡献和与最近的集约化政策的兼容性，我们在卢旺达东部卢瓦马加纳区的农村和城市周边地区进行了家庭调查和深入的定性访谈。我们的分析表明，集约化和专业化的主导方法如何忽视了小农战略的异质性和动态化性质。此外，我们的研究结果表明，有必要全面了解农民的异质性，以解释政府对现代农业的愿景与许多小农参与这一议程的能力之间的关键脱节，并可能为调整政策以更好地协调生产力目标和生计提供机会。通过这样做，我们对当前集约化政策框架的辩论做出了贡献，该政策促进了绿色革命技术，并强调了撒哈拉以南非洲更具包容性和弹性的农业发展的替代途径。
The government of Rwanda is promoting agricultural intensification focused on the production of a small number of targeted commodities as a central strategy to pursue the joint policy goals of economic growth, food security and livelihood development. The dominant approach to increase the productive capacity of the land, crops and animal resources has been through large-scale land consolidation, soil fertility management, and the intensive use of biotechnology and external inputs. However, evidence has shown that many Rwandan farmers, who employ various strategies and mixed farming practices based on their specific economic, social, and environmental circumstances, face difficulties adopting the singular prescribed approach to become more productive, modern commodity producers. To empirically explore diversity in smallholders' strategies and their contributions to livelihoods and compatibility with the recent intensification policies, we conducted household surveys and in-depth qualitative interviews in rural and peri-urban zones in Rwamagana district in Eastern Rwanda. Our analysis demonstrates how the dominant approach to intensification and specialisation overlooks the heterogeneity and dynamic nature of smallholder strategies. Moreover, our findings illustrate that a comprehensive understanding of farmer heterogeneity is necessary to explain the critical disjuncture between the government's vision of modern agriculture and the ability of many smallholders to engage with this agenda and may inform opportunities to adapt policies to better align productivity goals and livelihoods. In doing so, we contribute to debates about the current framing of intensification policy that promotes Green Revolution technologies and emphasise alternative pathways for more inclusive and resilient agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa.