Page 1 of 8 Farm Land Use Consolidation- a Home Grown Solution for Food Security in Rwanda J.J. Mbonigaba Muhinda & Leonidas Dusengemungu Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) 1. Background Rwanda’s economy is largely agrarian. More than 80% of the Rwanda’s projected population of 10.5 million 1 depends on farming. The total land area of the country measures 24,700 square kilometers. Although about 79% of the country’s land is classified as agricultural, only 11% of the land represents permanent crop land 2 . The remaining agricultural lands are covered with forests, marshlands and marginal lands in the hillsides where permanent and routine cultivation of crops are not tenable. Of the total arable land of 2,294,380 ha, 1,735,025 ha is cultivated with food and cash crops 3 and the remaining represents pastures and bushes. Over 80% of the population live in rural areas and subsist on smallholder farming. With an average of 407 persons per square Km, Rwanda represents the most densely populated nation in the continent. Hence the land distribution is highly fragmented and skewed in Rwanda. Land in Rwanda is the most valuable, productive and contested asset. Proper management of land is therefore a must. However, most of the laws governing land administration and management in the country had been formulated by the colonialist and have remained the same till 90's. Several reforms and policies are under implementation in Rwanda, among these, the Land Use Consolidation policy is key for agricultural transformation. The overarching strategies of economic development and poverty reduction in Rwanda that envisions social transformation through agriculture require shifting from such subsistence farming to commercial oriented agriculture. In Rwanda, the growing demographic pressure on land and continued fragmentation of households plots by inheritance forced the land use patterns to be inevitably re-organised. Volume of food crop production is a function of physical land area and the productivity of land under cultivation. Crop productivity, often measured as the ratio of farm outputs to inputs, reflects the efficiency of usage of inputs. However the efficiency of the inputs depends on the size of the farm land. Land fragmentation thus affects productivity and competitiveness of smallholder farms. Furthermore, the inherent difficulties in mechanizing farm chores in small farms also impede public and private investments 4 . The Land Use Consolidation Policy was enunciated in 2004 by the Government after the presidential visit in Malawi where real benefits of consolidated lands were seen. 1 Fast Facts (Jan 2011), National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, http://statistics.gov.rw 2 USAID (2010) Country Profile: Rwanda 3 Rwanda Statistical Year Book (2011), National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda 4 Mrema, G. C., Bake,r D. and Kahan, D (2008) Agricultural Mechanization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Time for a new look, FAO, Rome.