This article was originally published in The New Times on March 30, 2022.
The USAID-funded Feed the Future Rwanda Hinga Weze Activity (Hinga Weze) is concluding its five-year, $32.6 million initiative to alleviate rural poverty and malnutrition across the Rwandan districts of Gatsibo, Kayonza, Bugesera, Ngoma, Nyabihu, Rutsiro, Ngororero, Nyamasheke, Karongi, and Nyamagabe.
Producers in these districts, which are known for low agricultural productivity due to poor weather and use of agricultural practices, saw low productivity and increased rates of food insecurity.
But today, “farmers are producing more and earning more money,” said Laurence Mukamana, Hinga Weze Chief of Party.
This op-ed by Sheryl Cowan, Senior Vice President of Programs at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) and Jean Francois, Chief of Party for CNFA’s USDA West Africa PRO-Cashew Project (PRO-Cashew), was originally published by Farming First on December 15, 2021.
Married with five children, Irié Lou Tinan Rosalie lives in Gouenfla, a village within the Zuenoula department in the western part of central Côte d’Ivoire. Like most women in her village, she works with her husband to maintain and harvest the family’s four-hectare cashew plantation, even though she was never formally trained. Cashew production is an important industry in Côte d’Ivoire, which holds nearly 25 per cent of the world’s cashew nut market.
