Grant Period: April 2018- March 2022

Projet implemented by ACORD Rwanda in 4 districts: Bugesera , Kamonyi, Ngororero , Musanze

Executive summary
Agro-ecological practices (AEPs), whose general principle is to rationally use natural resources to generate better livelihoods and to maximize its potentials by promoting synergies and enhancing ecosystem resilience, are attractive options for both smallholder farmers and consolidated lands for commercial farming.

The project’s objective is to contribute to sustainable food security through the mobilization and commitment of stakeholders in agricultural production to the transition towards agro-ecology. The TAPSA project has specific objectives including of dissemination of the AEPs and institutional strengthening of the actors, the advocacy for a collective understanding of the issues related to the social and ecological transformation of the rural territories and their links with the economic field, as well as the baseline situation and facts to be capitalized by a national study on integrating AEPs into the CIP in Rwanda.

In the current context of Rwanda characterized by the intensive use of pesticides and the industrial inputs that cause the loss of biological life and the micro organisms responsible for the transformation of organic matter, soils become more and more dependent on industrial inputs with a loss of fertility at term. Indeed, the current system, based in particular on generation of profits through the massive use of inputs, does not take into account the sustainability of soil fertility and biodiversity. In addition, soils are becoming increasingly exposed to drought and floods. In this context, only agro-ecological practices that contribute to the natural regeneration of mineral salts and that protect the soil (by promoting the maintenance of vegetation cover) against degradation, can provide a sustainable way to optimize the intensification of land productivity and crop production. All in all, agroecological intensification is the way to go in order to counterbalance the massive use of agrochemicals inputs.