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This paper outlines the Rwandan government's achievements in terms of the execution of its Vision 2020 that was elaborated in 2000. Being 'halfway', the overall picture seems quite promising. Rwanda's economy is thriving with impressive economic growth figures. The country is on track to reach most Millennium development goals in the domain of education and health. The government is applauded for the quality of its technocratic governance and its pro-active policy to create an attractive business climate. However, there are also problematic indicators such as the limited extent of poverty reduction and the huge increase in inequality. This paper argues that the current strategy - one of maximal growth at all cost – is counterproductive to the objective of maximal poverty reduction. A strong economic growth, concentrated in the hands of a small elite, results in a highly skewed developmental path with limited trickle-down potential. As an alternative, the paper pleads in favour of broad-based inclusive growth building upon the knowledge and enhancing the capacities of rural small-scale farmers.

This paper outlines the Rwandan government's achievements in terms of the execution of its Vision 2020 that was elaborated in 2000. Being 'halfway', the overall picture seems quite promising. Rwanda's economy is thriving with impressive economic growth figures. The country is on track to reach most Millennium development goals in the domain of education and health. The government is applauded for the quality of its technocratic governance and its pro-active policy to create an attractive business climate. However, there are also problematic indicators such as the limited extent of poverty reduction and the huge increase in inequality. This paper argues that the current strategy - one of maximal growth at all cost – is counterproductive to the objective of maximal poverty reduction. A strong economic growth, concentrated in the hands of a small elite, results in a highly skewed developmental path with limited trickle-down potential. As an alternative, the paper pleads in favour of broad-based inclusive growth building upon the knowledge and enhancing the capacities of rural small-scale farmers.

In its 2008 World Development Report, the World Bank pleaded for a 'Green Revolution' for sub-Saharan Africa, pointing particularly to the importance of including smallholder farmers. This article focuses on the banana cropping system in Rwanda, and on the agricultural innovations introduced within this system. We first consider macro-level innovations that are designed to promote a modernized agricultural sector and that correspond to the rationale of the Green Revolution. We analyse how such 'top-down' innovations are received on the ground and show how smallholders seek to evade new government policies when they fail to reflect local economic and social realities. This demonstrates how some rural Rwandans are challenging the authority of the government in disguised ways in order to protect their local livelihoods. The Rwandan experience should inspire continent-wide Green Revolution policies to take account of the risk-coping rationale of small-scale farmers and their capacity to innovate 'from below'. Adapted from the source document.

Food crises and ecologization have given rise to a Belgian dynamic that does not behave according to the conventional tripod of agroecology: practitioners, social movement, and scientists. Instead of simply recounting the history of Belgian agroecology, the authors trace the history and dynamics in Belgium), a journey along six strands that weave themselves into a Belgian tapestry: Genetically modified crop commandos, a scientific paradigm shift, hybrid expertise opening the Northern route that intersects with a Southern political route, an original non-institutional dynamic in the French-speaking part of Belgium and an institutional initiative that led to a rift in Flanders. In the following section, we identify, emerging from those six strands, four tensions that create a space of innovations, namely, politically differentiated discourses, land access, fair price, and epistemic tensions. We discuss then the generative potential of the 4 tensions and describe the potential of reconfigurations generated by boundaries organizations, food justice and transdisciplinarity. We conclude that the concept of agroecology continues to have transformative potential in Belgium today. However, no one can predict the course of such a largely non-institutional dynamic. ; Peer reviewed

Rwanda has embarked on an ambitious policy package to modernise and professionalise the agrarian and land sector. Its reform fits into a broader call – supported by major international donors – to implement a Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. After 10 years of implementation, there is increased production output and value-addition in commercialised commodity chains. These are promising results. However, poverty reduction, particularly in more recent years, seems limited. Moreover, micro- level evidence from the field calls into question the long-term sustainability of the agricultural and land sector reform. In this article, a group of researchers, having engaged in in-depth qualitative research in a variety of settings and over an extended period, bring together their main research results and combine their key findings to challenge the dominant discourse on Rwanda as a model for development. ; Le Rwanda a entamé une vaste réforme politique visant à moderniser et à professionnaliser les secteurs agricole et foncier. Soutenu par des bailleurs internationaux, ces réformes s'inscrivent dans une volonté plus large d'introduire une Révolution Verte en Afrique subsaharienne. Après une décennie de mise en œuvre au Rwanda, on observe des résultats prometteurs tels que la croissance de la production agricole et la création de valeur ajoutée dans les filières agricoles commerciales. Néanmoins, la réduction de la pauvreté au cours de ces dernières années semble très limitée. De plus, des observations relevées au niveau micro, en milieux ruraux, questionnent la durabilité de ces réformes. Cet article regroupe les résultats d'un groupe de chercheurs qui ont travaillé sur le Rwanda avec une approche qualitative approfondie dans divers contextes et sur une longue période. Leurs conclusions majeures questionnent le discours dominant présenté par le Rwanda comme un modèle de développement pour le continent africain.

Rwanda has embarked on an ambitious policy package to modernise and professionalise the agrarian and land sector. Its reform fits into a broader call – supported by major international donors – to implement a Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. After 10 years of implementation, there is increased production output and value-addition in commercialised commodity chains. These are promising results. However, poverty reduction, particularly in more recent years, seems limited. Moreover, micro- level evidence from the field calls into question the long-term sustainability of the agricultural and land sector reform. In this article, a group of researchers, having engaged in in-depth qualitative research in a variety of settings and over an extended period, bring together their main research results and combine their key findings to challenge the dominant discourse on Rwanda as a model for development. ; Le Rwanda a entamé une vaste réforme politique visant à moderniser et à professionnaliser les secteurs agricole et foncier. Soutenu par des bailleurs internationaux, ces réformes s'inscrivent dans une volonté plus large d'introduire une Révolution Verte en Afrique subsaharienne. Après une décennie de mise en œuvre au Rwanda, on observe des résultats prometteurs tels que la croissance de la production agricole et la création de valeur ajoutée dans les filières agricoles commerciales. Néanmoins, la réduction de la pauvreté au cours de ces dernières années semble très limitée. De plus, des observations relevées au niveau micro, en milieux ruraux, questionnent la durabilité de ces réformes. Cet article regroupe les résultats d'un groupe de chercheurs qui ont travaillé sur le Rwanda avec une approche qualitative approfondie dans divers contextes et sur une longue période. Leurs conclusions majeures questionnent le discours dominant présenté par le Rwanda comme un modèle de développement pour le continent africain.

Rwanda has embarked on an ambitious policy package to modernise and professionalise the agrarian and land sector. Its reform fits into a broader call – supported by major international donors – to implement a Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. After 10 years of implementation, there is increased production output and value-addition in commercialised commodity chains. These are promising results. However, poverty reduction, particularly in more recent years, seems limited. Moreover, micro- level evidence from the field calls into question the long-term sustainability of the agricultural and land sector reform. In this article, a group of researchers, having engaged in in-depth qualitative research in a variety of settings and over an extended period, bring together their main research results and combine their key findings to challenge the dominant discourse on Rwanda as a model for development. ; Le Rwanda a entamé une vaste réforme politique visant à moderniser et à professionnaliser les secteurs agricole et foncier. Soutenu par des bailleurs internationaux, ces réformes s'inscrivent dans une volonté plus large d'introduire une Révolution Verte en Afrique subsaharienne. Après une décennie de mise en œuvre au Rwanda, on observe des résultats prometteurs tels que la croissance de la production agricole et la création de valeur ajoutée dans les filières agricoles commerciales. Néanmoins, la réduction de la pauvreté au cours de ces dernières années semble très limitée. De plus, des observations relevées au niveau micro, en milieux ruraux, questionnent la durabilité de ces réformes. Cet article regroupe les résultats d'un groupe de chercheurs qui ont travaillé sur le Rwanda avec une approche qualitative approfondie dans divers contextes et sur une longue période. Leurs conclusions majeures questionnent le discours dominant présenté par le Rwanda comme un modèle de développement pour le continent africain.