Essays on the effects of coffee market reforms, supply chains, and income improvement in Rwanda

This dissertation assesses the effects of policy reforms on farmers. These reforms were started by the Government of Rwanda (GOR) in the early 2000s. The first essay is based on a national agricultural household cross sectional survey of 498 coffee growers and 4,376 non-coffee farmers. The first essay identifies determinants of rural household income in Rwanda and elucidates differences between farmers growing coffee and non-coffee farmers. Results from quantile regressions showed that growing a large number of staple crops was positively associated with household expenditures for both coffee growers and non-coffee farmers. Moreover, the results also found that increasing farm size per capita, off-farm income opportunities and formal wage were associated with increasing household income. Similarly, sales of livestock products, such as milk or eggs, as well as the production and sale of fruit contribute significantly to improving household income. The analysis also highlights the high return of education for both coffee and non-coffee growers.;The second essay of this dissertation determines the effects of coffee sector reforms on coffee-growing households. The effects of the reforms are represented in terms of the yearly household expenditures per adult equivalent, a proxy of income. This essay uses a representative panel data of 252 coffee households surveyed in 2001 and 2007. Using fixed effects model and the instrumental variable method, results show that coffee farmers benefited from the reforms by increasing their expenditures over time. In addition, the results show that coffee growers that sell to the new coffee cherry market benefited more from these reforms than farmers who sell to the traditional parchment market. These effects were, however, not statistically significant.;The third essay compares the effects of two organizational forms of coffee supply chains (cooperatives and private processors) on household income. It also assesses which supply chain has benefited coffee growers the most. This essay uses a reduced panel data of 148 coffee households that were derived from the panel data used in the second essay. Only farmers selling coffee cherries were retained in the analysis. Using the walking distance (in minutes) as an instrument for the choice of the supply chain, estimations from the instrumental variable method show that there is no indication that farmers benefited from selling cherries to processing cooperatives instead of selling to private processors. These findings provide important information that may assist the Rwandan Government, international funding and development agencies in assessing the impacts of coffee policies and in developing other policies or interventions that induce the poverty reduction of farmers.