Rwanda Smallholder Coffee Tree Maintenance and Cherry Processing Techniques: Results of a National Farm-level Survey, 2002

The focus of the study is an assessment of the current status of farmer practices in coffee tree maintenance and farm-level post-harvest coffee processing. The data come from a national survey of households growing coffee. The interview questions replicate a 1991 study addressing the same topics, so frequently it is possible to make ten-year comparisons of changes in farmer practices. The analysis also compares growers according to the number of trees the household manages. In general, differences are greater between the1991 and 2001 countrywide averages than among various categories of 2001 growers—a highly unusual finding in African agriculture. The results indicate that some very basic steps might help improve productivity of Rwanda’s coffee sector