Agriterra in partnership with the National Agriculture Export Development Board (NAEB) through CBI (Dutch-Centre for Promotion of Imports) youth in coffee program has launched an exercise to raise awareness about "farm succession planning”.
Farm succession planning is the process of passing on the ownership of your farm to another person — typically to the next generation of your family.
The Farm succession is expected to develop the level of understanding on land transfer process and increase the number of youths who join agribusiness especially the coffee subsector.
The program started with 24 coffee farmers from eight Coffee Small and Mid-size Enterprises (SMEs) on October 22.
The development follows the call made by NAEB last year urging the youth to engage in Rwandan agribusiness especially the coffee sector since the numbers have shown that people engaged in this sub-sector are old.
According to Jean Marie Ntakirutimana, Agriterra Business Advisor, the move is in line with raising awareness on farm succession planning, developing a deep understanding of local cultural and legal aspects of farm handovers among others.
He said that they believe that they can play an important role in guiding the discussions on succession planning at cooperative and household levels.
"We also assist farmer organisations in identifying gaps in local, rights and inheritance laws,” He said
He added that with the help of this program they expect that the farmers will understand the new Rwandan land law and legal document to be used by parents who want to transfer the land to their children.
The New National Land Use Development Masterplan shows that 47 per cent (12,433 km) of land is for agriculture according to Pierre Celestin Hakorimana, The Environmental specialist in Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority.
"No matter the infrastructure needed in the country, the principle of Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority is to protect the land for agriculture,” he said
The beneficiaries speak out
The beneficiaries have commended the initiative saying this will help them to inherit their farm to their children because they are aged and do not have the energy to make use of coffee plantations and have difficulties in adopting new technologies.
Gorethe Marie Mukarugwiza, 60 years old, one of the coffee farmers, said that her children used to help her to grow coffee.
However, she said she had never given them land to cultivate, adding that she is going to start farm succession to her children.
"From this training, I have learnt the advantage of land subdivision and how to transfer it to my children in proper ways according to law,” she said.
"Our children are the future farmers and we have to transfer the land to them so that we can guide them while we are still alive,” she noted.
She added, "since we are aware of farm succession law we are going to teach the rest on how to hand over the land in a proper way according to law.”
The 27-year old farmer, Gerard Murwanashyaka, said that this is a good opportunity for young farmers not only to join coffee farming but also to inherit it from their parents in a proper way.
"There is a mentality among the youth whereby they have not yet understood the opportunities in coffee. For me, Coffee farming paid my school fees and I’ve built the house among others. Youth have to actively engage,” he said.
He urged the youth to invest and do agriculture especially coffee farming which has a lot of opportunities along the value chain.
"No big investment is needed," he testified.
He added that he has learnt a lot from the training on land succession.
"I used to take land law in the wrong way," he said.
Domithile Mukamugema, 63 years old, is another beneficiary who has already inherited her child the land but has never done an official hand over due to lack of information.
"Last year I gave the land to my son but never thought of handover or any other transfer process. I was not aware of it but with the help of this training I am going to start the process,” she said.
She added that she will also transfer land to the rest of her children and encourage them to join agribusiness.
According to Agriterra around 300 farmers have transferred pieces of land to their children but they were not aware of how to proceed with the handover of the land legally.
Agriterra is a network of Dutch agri-employers’ organizations and companies that seeks to professionalize farmers’ associations and cooperatives to have a positive influence on rural development.
Norbert Habineza Agriterra Consultant he was explaining the transfer law to the beneficiaries during the farm succession planning workshop on October 22, 2021.
Participants from eight Coffee Small and Mid-size Enterprises (SMEs) during the farm succession planning workshop on October 22, 2021.
Pierre Celestin Hakorimana, The Environmental specialist in Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority during the farm succession planning workshop on October 22, 2021.