Brief Overview
Created in 1992, IMBARAGA is a National Farmer Organization from Rwanda that works to improve the socio-economic conditions of an estimated 27,300 farmers located in 25 out of 30 districts across the country. IMBARAGA is now a local NGO which was initially created as a trade union organization. In 2013, with changes in the law regulating the functioning of local NGOs, which doesno longer recognize trade unions, Imbaraga shifted from a trade union to become a local NGO with the same mandate, vision and mission of protecting farmers’ interests. It was created at the initiative of farmers in Rwanda because these latter were voiceless and facing so many challenges in their businesses.For this reason, in order to solve their own problems, farmers have joined their efforts as far as lobby and advocacy issues are concerned. Thus, Imbaraga was created in this context of fighting for the farmers’ cause.
Legal Status:
A farmer organization registered as a local NGO.
OBJECTIVES AND MISSION
Strategic Plan:
Imbaraga Farmers Organization was working according to its past Strategic Plan (2014-2018), and is currently finalizing the new Strategic Plan (2019-2023).
The Main Axes are the following:
• Economic services to members;
• Research, training and information;
• Good Governance and Civic Participation;
• Gender equity and women empowerment;
• Environmental protection, management and climate change;
• Lobby and Advocacy.
Objectives of Imbaraga Farmers Organization:
To enhance farmers’ productivity and competitiveness;
To protect farmers’ interests and rights;
To strengthen the organizational capacity for service delivery.
Mission and Vision of Imbaraga Farmers Organization:
Imbaraga’s mission is to “increase the farmers’ professionalism through capacity building for productivity and competitiveness and protect farmers’ social and economic rights through lobby and advocacy”. On the other side, its vision is to make her member “A professional farmer and change maker”.
SECTORS OF INTERVENTION AND ACTIVITIES
Main Areas/Sectors of Intervention:
Production increase;
Access to market;
Lobby and advocacy;
Environmental conservation
Nutrition
Main Activities:
1. Train farmer members on production increase through FFS (Farmer Field School);
2. Backstop farmers to access agricultural inputs and credits;
3. Link farmers to remunerative markets;
4. Backstop farmers in lobbying and advocating for their agricultural issues (land law, farmer status, etc.);
5. Train smallholder farmers on fighting the malnutrition using nutrient-rich crops including beans rich in iron and zinc +Orange fleshed sweet potatoes;
6. Support farmers in protecting and conserving environment (planting agro-forestry trees, anti-erosion holes, etc.;
7. Support farmers in accessing livestock (small and cattle) and improved livestock farming, etc.;
8. Ensure environmental protection through the use of biogas, improved furnaces and stoves;
9. Etc.
Main Products of Members:
Maize, beans, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, banana, cassava, vegetables, fruits, livestock, (cows, goats, sheep and chickens).
MEMBERSHIP
Individual Farmer Members
Number of individual farmers/rural producer members:27,400 farmer members located in 25 districts across the country. In 2017, Imbaraga was introduced in Ruhango district to make a total number of 26 districts throughout the country, but members have not yet been total led in this new operation area.
Type of Members:
The average land size is 0.7 ha per each small-scale farmer member. However, there are some Imbaraga farmers who have large farms of 2 hectares or more.As mentioned above, members are gathered into Farmer Groups that is the grassroots level of Imbaraga Farmers Organization.Normally, a Farmer Group totalizes 25 to 30 members.
Number of individual women farmers/rural producers members:55% i.e.,15,070 members.
GOVERNANCE AND STRUCTURE
Governing Bodies:
Imbaraga Farmers Organization is governed by the General Assembly which is the top decision making organ. This is composed of farmer representatives from the sector level to the national level (Basic Sections; Antennas and Regions); 3 people of the Surveillance Committee and 3 the Conflict Management Committee.There is also a twofold Board of Directors:the Coordination Committee which is composed of 7 people namely the Legal Representative and his Deputy, the Secretary and 4 Representatives at the provincial level on one side, and the expanded Broad Committee comprising 25 Farmer Representatives at the District level, 3 Surveillance Committee members besides the 7 mentioned people of the Coordination Committee.
Organization:
Imbaraga is structured from the village level (Farmer Group). At the second level, there is a Basic Section which gathers from 5 to 10 Farmer Groups. The Basic Sections within an administrative district make what Imbaraga calls an “Antenna” while all antennas in a province make a “Region”. There are four (4) Regions which make Imbaraga at the national level.
DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS
In the Northern Province:
– AGRITERRA: It spreads its activities through CODEPO Project in Musanze and Burera districts.
– MLFM: Its activities are based in Rulindo District through SECALIM Project
– NPA: Its activities are based in Gakenke District through PPIMA Project
– EDC: Its activities are based in Musanze and Burera Districts through HD- IMBARAGA Project (HUGUKA DUKORE AKAZI KANOZE)
– EU: Its activities are based in Rulindo and Burera Districts through Farmer’s Voice Project that is being implemented in partnership with Alert International
In the Southern Province
– Alert International : Its activities are based in Huye District through IE4C Project
– VSF: Its activities are based in Nyanza, Ruhango and Huye Districts through EVE Project
– EU: Its activities are based in Ruhango District through Farmer’s Voice Project that is being implemented in partnership with Alert International
– CNFA: Its activities are based in Nyamagabe District through Feed the Future HINGA WEZE Project
– AFDI Lorraine: Its activities are based in Nyanza District through STATUT Project
In Western Province:
– CIP: Its activities are based in Rubavu District through Feed the Future Project
– ICRAF: Its activities are based in Nyabihu District through T4FS Project
– CNFA: Its activities are based in Nyamasheke, Karongi, Ngororero, Nyabihu and Rutsiro Districts through Feed the Future HINGA WEZE Project
– EDC: Its activities are based in Nyabihu District through HD- IMBARAGA Project (HUGUKA DUKORE AKAZI KANOZE)
– AGRITERRA: It spreads its activities through CODEPO Project in Nyabihu district.
– AFDI Lorraine: Its activities are based in Rubavu District through GEA Project
– EU: Its activities are based in Rubavu and Rutsiro Districts through Farmer’s Voice Project that is being implemented in partnership with Alert International
In the Eastern Province:
– AFDI Lorraine: Its activities are based in Bugesera and Nyagatare Districts through GEA Project
– EU: Its activities are based in Kayonza and Gatsibo Districts through Farmer’s Voice Project that is being implemented in partnership with Alert International
– TI-Rwanda: Its activities are based in Kayonza District through GPSA Project
In the Whole Country (All Districts)
EAFF: Its activities are being implemented through YOUTH Project
Sumary of the Ongoing Projects
The interventions of IMBARAGA seek to improve the wellbeing of all farmers, the organization aims at the economic development of its beneficiaries all its interventions are divided into these main groups:
– Governance and institutional development
– Advocacy and lobbying
– Agriculture and livestock development
– Environmental protection
– Capacity building of the employees and beneficiaries
The implementation of the above-mentioned programs is done through different projects funded by donors. The following are projects implemented by IMBARAGA Farmers organisation:
1. Advocacy and lobbying program
Public Policy Information, Monitoring and Advocacy project : This project seeks to advocate for government development projects and monitoring how they are implemented at district level. The aim is to ensure that government project and policies work to deliver improved services, especially for poor Rwandans. Public policy information, monitoring and advocacy (PPIMA) operates in ten sectors of Gakenke district. The project mainly uses the community scorecard tool and offer advice in the AJIC (Advocacy and Justice Information Centre). This project is funded by NPA.
GPSA Project - improving citizen participation in the district imihigo performance contracts : This project is funded by the World Bank through Transparency International Rwanda. it operates in Kayonza in Eastern Province and Nyanza in Southern. This project aims at empowering farmers at District level through social accountability tools to improve performance contracts - Imihigo in Rwandan agricultural projects and strengthening citizen participation.
Voice for Chance Program V4CP-Advocacy against malnutrition project: The project is funded by SNV seeks to advocate for improvement of food & nutrition security in Rwanda. It brings together 6 CSOs. Some of the instruments and ways used in advocacy to engage decision makers at the district and national levels.
STATUT de l’Agriculture project: This project seeks to collect information from citizens upon which advocacy will be made among government, CSOs, farmer cooperatives and among farmers in general so that these ideas may guide the law determining agriculture in Rwanda.
Farmers’ voice project (FVP) -–ijwiry ’abahinzin’aborozi : This project is provided with financial support of the European Union. The goal of this project is to contribute to poverty reduction and strengthened food security by promoting farmer centered policies through enhanced civil society and farmers’ organizations engagement in Rwanda. The specific objective is to strengthen the voice of famers’ organisations in agricultural policy making, planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation in seven target districts: Ruhango, Burera, Rulindo, Rubavu, Rutsiro, Kayonza and Gatsibo.
2. Agricultural Development Programs
Huguka Dukore Akazi Kanoze project : This project is funded by EDC with the objective of Increasing stable Employment for Vulnerable Youth through: Improved employ-ability skills for vulnerable male and female youth; Increased viable self-employment among vulnerable male and female youth and Higher quality, more coordinated workforce development service delivery system. It operates in Musanze, Nyabihu and Rubavu districts.
Its main role is in training and monitoring of activities. However, important to note is that the trainings are conducted by experts from ‘akazi kanoze access’ program under the themes of creating income generating projects, finding the market and selling of the products.
Feed the Future HINGA WEZE : This project is funded by USAID through CNFA and aims at increasing agricultural productivity, expanding farmers’ access to markets and improving nutritional outcome of agriculture interventions. Its operates in Nyabihu, Rutsiro, Ngororero, Nyamasheke, and Karongi (Western Province) ; and Nyamagabe (Southern Province).
Green Energy and Livestock Project (Projet Energie Verte et Elevage – EVE Project) : This project aims at promoting small livestock farming among poor families, promoting animal health services to improve animal production and the use of bio-gas energy produced by cow dung. The project is mainly funded by the Belgian Government (DGD) through VSF - Belgium. It operates in Huye, Nyamagabe, NyanzaandRuhangodistricts in the Southern Province. Ruhango district is only concerned with biogas promotion.
Gestion Agricole GEA: This project is funded by AFDI Loraine and operates in 10 districts of Rwanda distributed into 11 zones, with 25 groups. The said districts are: Nyanza, Ruhango, Muhanga, Kamonyi, Gakenke, Musanze, Nyabihu, Rubavu, Nyagatare and Bugesera. The project mobilises farmers to count cost invested and to select the most profitable crop more than other and they do this during farming seasons A and B.
Fight against malnutrition project– ‘secualim’ : The project is funded by MLFM, it operates in buyoga sector in mu Rulindo district. The objective of the project is to support the most vulnerable farmers targeting specifically families with stunted children, breast feeding mothes and/or pregnant women.
Due to the existing collaboration with the sector leadership, the project is often called to support in times of disaster (strong erosions, floods…).
E-granary: This project is funded by IFAD and EAFF is responsible of the project coordination at EAC region. The objective of the project is to improve the income and living standards of participating e-Granary smallholder farmers in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
Youth Project : The project aims at scaling up rural Youth access to inclusive financial services for entrepreneurship and employment. The project is funded by IFAD through EAFF
3. Environmental Protection
Trees for Food Security project, T4FS : The project is funded by ICRAF and operates in Nyabihu and Rubavu districts. Its objective is TO contribute to the reduction poverty and strengthened food security through agro forestry and contribution to the environmental protection. The main project participate in fighting erosion by planting trees that are rich in soil organic matter (alnus, acacia; …) and edible fruits such as avocadoes, tree tomatoes; …).
The EVE project already described before also contributes to environment protection via the use of biogas which contributes to reduction of deforestation and reduction of greenhouse gas emission.
Lesson learnt from our field experience
During the past ten years, Imbaraga Federation has established partnerships with various organizations of civil society at local and international levels. These partnerships have multifaceted reality on the ground through the defense of socio-economic rights of our members which is evidenced by active participation in the development and popularization of the Land Law in Rwanda, the struggle for remunerative prices of potatoes for producers in the North and Northwest of the country; the development of the value chain of washed potatoes in northern province that provide more value to producers, obtaining legal personality as an organization of
Professionals in the agricultural sector, the production and popularization of internal policy documents that we use as a reference tool in our trade union action, especially the policy of lobbying and advocacy, the gender policy; etc.