One of the many catch phrases we hear in coffee is the idea of “smallholder farms”—a term that refers to a local level of agricultural practice where coffee is grown. And in Rwanda, things get pretty small, pretty quick. More than 430,000 families (well over a million people total) grow and rely on coffee in the landlocked African nation, with each family cultivating fewer than 200 coffee shrubs on average. For those families, the cultivation and value of coffee is intrinsically tied to well-being, and the promise of higher prices for coffee is not some esoteric thing—it has real-life consequences.
In a new story for Sprudge Special Projects, Nairobi-based journalist Daniel Muraga takes us to Rwanda to explore the wide-reaching impact of a project called Ikawa Nziza Cyane, which translates as “Best Quality Coffee”. It’s a multi-party project pursued by the international non-profit TechnoServe in partnership with the government of Rwanda. “The goal of the project is that these entities will boost the income of coffee farmers throughout Rwanda by driving improved coffee quality,” Muraga reports, “[by creating] better knowledge of regenerative farming practices, higher coffee prices, and a healthier, more resilient, coffee sector.”
Read Ikawa Nziza Cyane: Inside Rwanda’s Groundbreaking Coffee Quality Project
Being future minded is at the core of this work, and training up the next generation of coffee professionals in Rwanda is one of the project’s major goals. Daniel Muraga’s reporting from Rwanda is a clear-minded and prescient, and gives readers in the rest of the world a window into the long-term aims of this sort of work, with very real impacts at the farm level in Rwanda, a nation that also happens to be home to some of the most delicious and compelling coffees in the world.
Sprudge Special Projects is a hub for long-form original journalism and select archival features on Sprudge. Since 2009, Sprudge has been the world’s premier home for thought-provoking coffee journalism, evocative photo essays, design deep-dives, and cultural narratives. Special Projects Desk continues this tradition in 2023 and beyond, platforming exceptional works from the field of coffee journalism.
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