Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Al Goldis / Associated Press Dan Clay, 53, left Rwanda during the civil war, but returned to the scenic, mountainous nation in 1996. The Michigan State professor is helping re-energize the farm economy in the central African country.

Coffee, MSU help perk up Rwanda

Project aims to help farmers -- many of them widows -- grow and sell gourmet coffee beans.

By Tim Martin / Associated Press

Rwanda facts • Population: About 8 million • Location: Central Africa bordered by Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Uganda • Size: 10,169 square miles, slightly smaller than Maryland • Government: Republic. Multi-party system • Capital: Kigali • Economy: The 1994 genocide severely impoverished the population, particularly women. About 90 percent of the population works in agriculture. About 60 percent of the population lives in poverty. Source: CIA World Fact Book/Associated Press files Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

EAST LANSING -- Dan Clay spent a few tense days holed up in his house as gunfire and grenades erupted outside during the start of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

A decade later, the Michigan State University agriculture professor is helping re-energize the farm economy in the central African nation that has become his home away from home.

Michigan State is part of a project aimed at helping Rwandan farmers -- many of them widows whose husbands were among the genocide's 800,000 victims -- grow and sell gourmet coffee beans. The project has helped raise the standard of living for thousands of Rwandans as they emerge from the devastation wrought by years of civil war.

"Basically, it was like starting up all over again," Clay said. "But it was exciting to get back and start the rebuilding."

The decade-old Rwanda genocide has regained world attention lately with the release of the movie, "Hotel Rwanda." The movie tells the story of how Kigali hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu with a Tutsi wife, manages to save 1,268 mostly Tutsi Rwandans during the civil war. Don Cheadle, who plays Rusesabagina, has been nominated for an Oscar award for best actor.

Clay, 53, left the country during the civil war, but returned to the scenic, mountainous nation in 1996. The director of Michigan State's Institute of International Agriculture has lived in Rwanda off and on since 1979.

In 2001, he helped found PEARL, the Partnership to Enhance Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages. The project helps knowledge move from university labs and industry experts to rural farmers. Partners include Texas A&M University, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the National University of Rwanda.

The partnership helps farmers grow and sell chili peppers, cassava flour and coffee -- a product that had been a Rwandan farm staple before the war.

About 90 percent of the Rwandan labor force is connected to agriculture. Many of the nation's 8 million people live in poverty, so higher coffee prices and bigger markets have been a boost to the economy.

The project trained 17 Rwandans in agricultural science at U.S. universities. Those trainees then returned to their homeland, taking their knowledge to small towns and villages.

The farming often is done on steep terrain with little or no machinery. Farmers are taught to pool their resources in cooperatives. Washing stations are set up to care for the beans after harvest, and the best are separated from the rest. Taste-testers are taught to monitor quality control.

Although most Rwandans drink tea rather than coffee, marketing help has connected Rwandan farmers with gourmet coffee companies in Europe and the United States, allowing them to tap a growing customer base. Michigan State will begin selling a Rwandan coffee blend arriving on campus in the next few weeks.

"People have become serious about the quality of their coffee," Clay said. "It's helped this project grow like wildfire."

PEARL's most mature project, in Maraba, has shown the most dramatic growth.

The project involved about 300 people in 2001. Now about 2,000 are involved. Overall, the projects include 11 sites with around 8,000 coffee growers.

The cooperatives grossed about $750,000 last year. By 2006, they should break $3 million, according to Timothy Schilling, a Texas A&M international development specialist working in Rwanda with PEARL.

Coffee prices paid to farmers have tripled, from 50 cents a pound in 2001 to about $1.50 a pound now. Most farmers now can afford tuition for their children to attend school and can pay for medical care.

Many also are able to buy goats, sheep, pigs or cows. Families have put tin roofs on homes once covered by grass roofs.

"There is a feeling of hope replacing the feeling of despair and you can actually feel it when you visit the cooperatives and hang out with the farmers," Schilling said via e-mail from Rwanda. "It's very heartwarming to see these people take hold of their future and their children's future."

The next step for the project should be ensuring the sustainability of the cooperatives, Clay and Schilling said.

The cooperatives are forming a union aimed at combining their strengths for marketing, sales and coffee quality. Within three years, U.S. supporters hope the union can survive on its own.