Janvier Gasasira, project coordinator of an IFAD-supported project in Rwanda, shared this story at the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair IFAD, Rome, 26-29 September 2011. Rucibiraro Theresphore, 49, received a cow from an IFAD project in Rwanda in 2007. Saving his earnings and opening a bank account, he was eventually able to purchase 2,500 chickens and another piece of land. Earlier this year he received the ‘best farmer’ award at the National Agriculture Show. Over the past four years, each of six neighbours received a cow from him through the project’s revolving fund – perhaps one of them will be the next ‘best farmer’. [ Originally posted on http://www.cop-ppld.net/cop_knowledge_base ]

1. THE STORY OF RUCIBIRARO THERESPHORE
A Farmer’s Inspiring Journey Out of Absolute Poverty
From a Humble Beginning to a National
Success Story
Rucibiraro Theresphore works hard but lives
comfortably with his family on a small farm in
Cyinama Village. Located in the Mugunga
Sector of Gakenke District in the Northern
Province of Rwanda, reaching Cyinama from
the closest paved highway involves an hour-
long drive up mountains, ascending some of
the steepest and roughest dirt roads in the
country. However, while Cyinama is remote, it
certainly is not deserted. Rwanda is one of the
most densely populated countries in Africa,
and with 90% of the country living in rural areas and depending on smallholder subsistence
agriculture1, even isolated mountaintop villages like Cyinama are densely packed with farmers
surviving on small parcels of land.
Life is a challenge for farmers living in
Cyinama. Most farmers in the village spend
their time cultivating crops on their land,
growing most of the food they eat.
Occasionally, farmers sell surplus crops at
small local markets, which are located a long
walk halfway down the mountain. The
mountaintop village has no access to running
water, with the closest natural water sources
far down the mountain in the valleys below.
There are no electrical lines in Cyinama
either, and the only available source of electricity comes from heavy batteries purchased in the
market and carried back up the mountain. Transportation is limited too. Each day, only two small
buses leave the village in the morning and afternoon. The buses go to Musanze, the closest city,
which is still more than an hour away.

2. While merely surviving sounds like a challenge in a place like Cyinama, it comes as a pleasant
surprise that Rucibiraro Theresphore’s farm is thriving. The 49 year old farmer has two hectares
of land which produce bountiful harvests of maize and beans. He has two dairy cows, four sheep,
a pig, and several chickens. While the average income in Rwanda is 45 USD a month2,
Rucibiraro often sees a monthly income of 250 USD from what his farm produces. His wife and
four children are happy and healthy, with all four children attending school and reaching the top
of their classes with high marks. Two years ago, Rucibiraro was able to purchase a motorcycle,
which he uses to get to his job at a local bank as well as to transport his crops to market. The
other farmers in Cyinama are also doing surprisingly well, due in part to learning from the
successes of their neighbor Rucibiraro.
Rucibiraro is clearly a successful and
talented farmer. In June of this year, the
Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture and
Animal Resources (MINAGRI) even
named Rucibiraro Theresphore the 2011
Rwanda Farmer of the Year at the
ministry’s Sixth Annual National
Agriculture Show. What is even more
astonishing about Rucibiraro’s success is
that a mere 13 years ago, Rucibiraro was
living in a refugee camp in the Congo
after fleeing from civil war and genocide
in Rwanda. After living for two years in
a refugee camp, he returned back home
to Rwanda with almost nothing. Through a combination of talent, hard work, and technical and
material assistance from MINAGRI’s Support Project for the Strategic Transformation of
Agriculture (PAPSTA), Rucibiraro has not only climbed out of poverty, but he has helped his
neighbors in Cyinama improve their lives as well.
A Journey of Progress
Before the genocide, Rucibiraro was a modest chicken farmer who owned 100 chickens. When
he fled Rwanda during the conflict, his farm was looted, and all of his chickens were lost. In
1996, he returned back home to an empty farm in Rwanda. Despite almost no assets, he managed
to save up 1,500 Rwandan francs, which he used to purchase a baby pig. After raising the pig,
Rucibiraro sold it and used the profits to purchase chickens from one up to 250. Using his

3. previous knowledge as a chicken farmer, Rucibiraro soon began to see profits from the sale of
his chickens and eggs in neighboring Musanze District.
The PAPSTA program, funded with an International Fund for Agricultural Development loan
and implemented by MINAGRI, began in selected zones across Rwanda in 2006. The program
takes a multifaceted approach to shifting prevailing subsistence agriculture towards market-based
farming in order to alleviate rural poverty. The program soon became active in Rucibiraro’s
sector of Mugunga, and Rucibiraro was quick to take advantage of the technical assistance and
modest material benefits PAPSTA could provide farmers.
A small amount of technical assistance from PAPSTA led to dramatic improvements in incomes
and living conditions for Rucibiraro’s family and the other farmers in Cyinama Village.
Technicians from PAPSTA taught the villagers new innovations like how to collect rainwater for
household use and farming, how to plant drought-resistant kitchen gardens, how to turn livestock
manure into fertilizer and biogas to power lights and stoves, how to save and manage loan and
how to rotate crops to maximize soil fertility. In 2007, PAPSTA began distributing cows to
farmers in Cyinama as part of the “One Cow Per Poor Family” project. Rucibiraro and other
farmers in the village received cows through the project, and immediately began to benefit from
the cows’ milk and manure. The following sections describe in detail the many innovations
introduced by PAPSTA that have enabled Rucibiraro and his fellow farmers to overcome
poverty with combination of hard work, improved technical knowledge, and minimal material
distribution.
Thanks to training received through PAPSTA and through a combination of his farm and non-
farm income, he had saved up enough money to purchase his first hectare of farmland. He soon
became successful farming this land, and realized he could be even more productive and
profitable with more land to farm. With this in mind, Rucibiraro managed to purchase additional
farmland adjacent to his existing hectare of land, but he unfortunately did not have enough
money. However, because of his increasing assets, income, and productivity, a bank approved
Rucibiraro for a loan of 700,000 Rwandan francs, and Rucibiraro was able to purchase his
second hectare of farm land using this credit.
Rainwater Collection
Access to clean drinking water is a daily requirement no matter where one lives. Getting water
every day is a particular challenge for mountaintop villages in rural Rwanda that do not have
access to running water. Women and children often walk kilometers down mountains to fetch
water from natural sources in the valleys below, hauling water back up to their homes in plastic
jugs. The PAPSTA program introduced two types of rainwater harvesting techniques to farmers

4. that eliminated the need to make daily trips to fetch
water, enabling households to have convenient and
reliable access to clean water at home.
Rucibiraro has successfully employed both types of
rainwater collection on his farm. The first takes
advantage of the fact that almost all homes in rural
Rwanda have metal roofs and gutters. Technicians from
PAPSTA taught Rucibiraro how to construct a water
storage tank next to his roof, and how to run a gutter
from his roof to the tank. Whenever it rains in Cyinama,
rainwater from Rucibiraro’s roof flows into his storage
tank. Instead of walking down the mountain every day to
fetch drinking water, Rucibiraro’s family can simply
turn the spigot on the
rainwater storage tank
in their backyard.
The second type of rainwater collection involves constructing
collection ponds by digging large pits and lining them with
plastic sheeting. Rucibiraro’s collection pond is about 10
meters square and five meters deep. He uses the water this
pond collects to water his crops during periods without
enough rain. Rucibiraro’s neighbors have also benefitted from
his success since his well-constructed systems provide good
examples for them to copy, and Rucibiraro has helped his
neighbors design systems of their own.
Kitchen Gardens
The PAPSTA program also introduced the concept of
kitchen gardens to local farmers. These small gardens
grow a variety of drought-resistant vegetables that
improve food security and decrease malnutrition
among subsistence farms, as well as provide an income
source of vegetables and seeds to sell at the market.
Rucibiraro set up two kitchen gardens shortly after
learning about the concept from PAPSTA technicians,
and he even helped his neighbor across the street

5. design a kitchen garden of his own.
Distribution of Livestock
After a prolonged period of civil war, genocide, and population displacement, most Rwandan
farmers lost their livestock. The PAPSTA program is successfully alleviating poverty and
rebuilding rural economies by distributing cows to poor farmers. Rucibiraro received a cow
through PAPSTA in 2007, and his family immediately began to benefit from household
consumption and sale of the milk, and the use of the cow dung as fertilizer to increase crop
yields. Through the PAPSTA program, he kept his cow healthy by learning how to construct a
sturdy shed for the cow, and also by learning what types of food to feed the cow. He even
learned the benefits of feeding his cow supplements to increase milk production, and the
importance of giving his cow proper vaccinations and veterinary care to keep it healthy.
The PAPSTA program also set up an
artificial insemination program for the cows
of local farmers, and Rucibiraro’s cow soon
gave birth to a calf. As part of the conditions
for receiving a cow through PAPSTA, when
a farmer’s cow has its first calf, the farmer is
obligated to give this calf to a neighbor as a
gift. This system is called the “pass on the
gift” system, and has succeeded in both
strengthening community ties through
reciprocity while also speeding up the
reproduction and distribution of cows, which
are life-changing assets to impoverished subsistence farmers. Since receiving his first cow four
years ago, Rucibiraro has already passed on six calves to his neighbors. While he has had as
many as four cows at once, he is happy with the two cows he has now.
The PAPSTA program is also currently coordinating with local authorities and a dairy farming
cooperative in the area to set up a modern milk collection center near Cyinama. Financed jointly
by PAPSTA and private funds raised by the cooperative, the facility will increase market access
to smallholder dairy farmers in the remote mountain community. Once the facility is operational,
demand for and profit from the milk of Cyinama dairy farmers will go up, increasing the
incomes of Rucibiraro and his neighbors who also produce milk.

6. Biogas and Fertilizer Production
Shortly after dairy farming became re-established in
Cyinama through the distribution of cows, PAPSTA
technicians taught Rucibiraro and other local farmers
how to produce biogas and fertilizer from cow
manure. Using a design he learned from PAPSTA,
Rucibiraro constructed a biogas production system
next to his cattle sheds. The system consists of an
enclosed subterranean storage tank into which
Rucibiraro can pour a mixture of cow manure and
water. After the mixture sits for a week, methane gas
from the decomposing manure starts to collect at the
top of the tank. A small pipe runs from the
underground tank into Rucibiraro’s kitchen, where
the methane can then be used to power a gas lamp
and his family’s cooking stove. This sustainable and
environmentally friendly biogas system means that
Rucibiraro no longer has to carry a heavy metal gas
tank into town and pay for gas to cook in his kitchen.
After all of the methane has gassed out of the mixture, Rucibiraro removes the mixture from the
tank. He then places the mixture into large pits behind his cattle sheds, adding dried husks from
his maize and other organic plant waste to the mix. After the mixture composts, it turns into good
fertilizer for his fields. He learned how to do this from PAPSTA technicians, and the fertilizer
has created noticeable improvements to his yields.
Crop Rotation
Rucibiraro also learned the importance of crop rotation from PAPSTA technicians. As a former
chicken farmer, he didn’t have a lot of experience with growing crops, but PAPSTA taught him
and his fellow villagers the best methods for sustainably farming their land. As part of new
agricultural policies for the nation, farmers in a region are instructed which crops to plant during
each season. In Rucibiraro’s region, farmers are encouraged to rotate between maize and beans.
With two rainy seasons a year, Rucibiraro will plant maize in both of his hectares during one
season, switching to beans during the next. This is particularly important for sustainable farming,
because beans are a nitrogen-fixing crop. After beans are harvested, their roots decompose and
add nutrients back to the soil, enabling higher yields for the next season’s maize crop.

7. The Mechanization of Agriculture in Cyinama
When Rucibiraro Theresphore
was recognized by MINAGRI
as the Rwanda Farmer of the
Year in June 2011, MINAGRI
awarded him with a prize of a
gas-powered tilling machine to
plow his fields. Using
traditional hand methods of
working a field, it takes 10
people five days to prepare
one hectare for planting. Using
the tiller Rucibiraro now has,
he can plow one hectare by himself in one hour, using only one liter of fuel. The tiller is the first
of its kind in Cyinama, where traditional farming with hand tools is still the norm. The time and
labor savings the mechanized tiller provides are impressive.
The new tiller has also created a number of other unexpected benefits for Rucibiraro’s family
and the entire village. Not only does Rucibiraro use the tiller to work his own land, but he can
loan or rent the tiller out to his neighbors to increase their productivity. In fact, he has already
taught three other men in the village how to use his tiller, helping to build the local technical
knowledge capacity required to carry out Rwanda’s national strategy of increasing the beneficial
use of mechanization in agriculture.
Additionally, Rucibiraro purchased a maize mill after
winning the tiller. The mill can be powered by drive belts
from the tiller, and Rucibiraro can now grind maize kernels
into maize flour. By processing his own maize into flour
instead of selling the whole kernels or paying someone in
town to grind the maize for him, Rucibiraro has moved
further up the value chain with his maize farming. He can
now sell his processed maize flour for a larger profit than he
could get selling his unprocessed maize kernels. As the only
one in the village with a maize mill, Rucibiraro is now
positioned to further increase his income by charging his
neighbors for milling services. At the same time, he will be
helping his neighbors increase their own incomes by
allowing them to sell their maize in a more profitable

8. processed form.
The impact of the tiller on Rucibiraro’s family and Cyinama does not stop here. Using the gas
engine from the tiller, Rucibiraro is able to charge the large battery used to start the tiller’s
engine. Instead of going into town to purchase charged batteries to provide electricity for his
home, he can now charge his own batteries. With a cheaper and less time-consuming way of
getting electricity, Rucibiraro is now able to regularly power his family’s television along with
lights at night. His children can study later into the evening with the lights, and are doing better
at school.
Constantly seeking self-improvement,
Rucibiraro is also using his television to
watch educational programs produced by
the Rwanda Development Board to teach
himself English. His children are also
learning English this way, and he often
invites children from the entire village to
come to his house to use his television and
learn English. Providing his family with
electricity has now become so easy that
Rucibiraro even shares his electricity with
his neighbor. He has run electrical lines
from the battery in his house out of his roof and over the road into his neighbor’s home, where
his neighbor uses the electricity to power his own light at night. Here again, we see another
example of the entire village benefitting from Rucibiraro’s talent, hard work, and good fortune.
A Replicable Success Story
The story of Rucibiraro Theresphore’s
journey from absolute poverty to becoming
the richest farmer in his village and the
2011 Rwanda Farmer of the Year is truly
inspirational. Without a doubt, Rucibiraro is
a uniquely talented man who has worked
hard to pull himself out of poverty with a
minimal amount of assistance. However,
while Rucibiraro’s achievements have been
remarkable in their scale, the methods he
used to consistently improve his family’s
situation are quite simple and attainable for
any other smallholder farmer in Rwanda. Indeed, millions of other farmers in Rwanda are

9. pursuing similar methods as Rucibiraro to improve living conditions, increase yields, and raise
incomes.
If the story of Rucibiraro Theresphore is replicable by others through simple methods, this means
that the eventual eradication of all rural poverty in Rwanda is possible as well. The following
lessons can be learned from his story:
Diversification of household income into farm and non-farm sources can provide a
significant boost to overall on-farm success, as Rucibiraro’s job at a local bank
provided him with wages that he invested into making his farm more profitable
Availability of banking services and credit are vital in enabling smallholders to improve
their landholdings. While Rucibiraro was successfully farming his first hectare of land,
he was still unable to purchase a second hectare without access to a bank loan.
Significant improvements can be made to living conditions by giving smallholders
technical instruction on innovations that do not require much in material resources.
Rainwater collection, kitchen gardens, and biogas production are all simple concepts
that contribute to improved health, increased income, and a decrease in household costs
in terms of time and money spent on basic necessities.
The cow solidarity chain has had enormously positive impacts on alleviating rural
poverty. The cows provide milk for household consumption, improving nutritional
health, and the milk can also be sold to increase incomes. The manure contributes to
agricultural sustainability and productivity. The “pass on the gift” system also
strengthens communities by encouraging cooperation and mutual benefit. The
formation of dairy farmer cooperatives is empowering rural communities and leading to
tangible benefits like modern milk collection centers.
Mechanization can have tremendous multiplier effects. A single tiller being shared by
an entire village is increasing the productivity of everyone. Farmers are learning
technical skills that will facilitate further mechanization. The tiller also powers a mill
that adds value by grinding maize kernels into more valuable maize flour. The tiller is
also used to charge batteries that provide electricity for lights and a television, which
are having educational benefits.
With all of his success, Rucibiraro remains humble. He is thankful and dedicated to his family
and village. He has worked hard to pull himself up out of poverty, and has also helped to pull his
neighbors up along with him at every step along the way. By working to help each other,
Rucibiraro and his neighbors have improved the lives of everyone in the village. With their
dedication and hard work, along with a small amount of technical and material assistance from

10. PAPSTA and MinAgri, Rucibiraro Theresphore and the rest of Cyinama Village are improving
their lives every day, helping each other continue along their journey of progress.
Janvier GASASIRA, Project Coordinator of two IFAD funded projects, PAPSTA/KWAMP,
RWANDA. Gasasira@gmail.com
9/23/2011