Resource information
The Land Use Consolidation Act (LUC) was introduced in 2008 and is an important
component of agricultural policy in Rwanda. As part of the Government of Rwanda’s
broader Crop Intensification Program (CIP), LUC entails participating farmers
consolidating aspects of their operations with neighboring farmers, while retaining
individual ownership of their parcels. LUC farmers also agree to grow a single priority
crop that has been identified by the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) as best suited to
local conditions and consistent with Rwanda’s overall agricultural strategy. The rationale
for LUC is that joining small plots together to farm as a single unit would deliver
important economies of scale in agricultural production, resulting in improvements to
efficiency and sustainability, which would in turn boost household well-being and
promote greater equity.
LUC is a large-scale initiative, and by 2011 approximately 13% of the total land area
under cultivation in Rwanda was under LUC, with approximately 40% of the farmers in
the country participating (MINAGRI, 2012). LUC has been implemented to some extent
in all districts of Rwanda, and continues to expand to additional areas.
Despite the importance of LUC, research related to the program has been limited, and
there is a wide range of sometimes contradictory perspectives on its impacts. The present
research project aims to fill this gap and reconcile these divergent views by providing a
thorough and detailed analysis of the realities, perceptions, and impacts of LUC/CIP on
socioeconomic and environmental outcomes. The research was carried out by a team at
the National University of Rwanda with technical support from NORC at the University
of Chicago as part of the LAND Project funded by USAID, and implemented by
Chemonics International Inc. in Rwanda.
