The horror of genocide and civil war have turned the world's attention to Rwanda over the past year and a half. But before and beyond that conflict, there were hunger and the slow, grinding poverty of smallholder agriculture in the context of severe land scarcity and degradation. Rwanda's average rural population density of 574 inhabitants per square kilometer of arable land is the highest in Africa.
Most arable land is under cultivation.
Per capita food production dropped by 25 percent from 1984 to 1991. Half of the surveyed farmers reported declining productivity. Half of the farmland suffers from moderate to severe erosion. Farm sizes are very small averaging 0.83 hectares per household and getting smaller with increasing rural population. Use of fragile lands on steep slopes is expanding, and fallow periods are growing shorter.