The Impact Of The Girinka One Cow Per Poor Family Program On Household Income In Gatsibo District, Rwanda

ABSTRACT

Low agriculture productivity and arable land distribution is a major challenge in Rwanda. The obvious consequences is that a substantial number of rural families who subsist on agriculture have less than 1ha, and where there is no use of fertilizers and most of that land is not arable which will cause land degradation, poverty and low household income. In the vision 2020, Rwanda intends to move from a low level income country to a middle level economy by 2020. The Girinka program is one of the strategies towards these objectives. Its aim is to give to every poor family one cow that will help the poor families to increase their crop production by using manure, increase their income and their nutrition at the household level and country wide as well. It is against this background that the study evaluates the impact of one cow per poor family or Girinka program on household income in Gatsibo district in Rwanda. The study was an attempt to fill the gap of empirical understanding of the impact of Girinka program that was introduced in 2006 in Rwanda. The study objectives were to analyse the impact of the program on household income, on crop production at the household level and to evaluate the constraints facing the implementation of the program. The study has employed the propensity score matching (PSM) approach to analyze the impact of Girinka program on household income in Gatsibo district, using a cross sectional data of households participating and non-participant in the program, collected using a semi structured questionnaire in the region. The findings have shown that the program has a positive impact on household income and crop production at the household level. The logistic regression of the factors that influence the participation in Girinka program, four factors came out significant which are gender, household size, land size and crop input. The study also showed that according to the response of the participant; that corruption was not a main constrain during the implementation of the program, that follow up of local leaders was a constraint, that lack of information was not constrain, that training of beneficiaries was a constraint. The study also recommended the implementation of the program in other areas out of Rwanda as one of the policies basis for improving poor household livelihood, and this study recommended as well for further research of the impact of the program on milk production in the country.