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Abstract
The focus of the study is an assessment of the current status of farmer practices in
coffee tree maintenance and farm-level post-harvest coffee processing. The data come from a
national survey of households growing coffee. The interview questions replicate a 1991 study
addressing the same topics, so frequently it is possible to make ten-year comparisons of changes
in farmer practices. The analysis also compares growers according to the number of trees the
household manages. In general, differences are greater between the1991 and 2001 countrywide
averages than among various categories of 2001 growers—a highly unusual finding in African
agriculture. The results indicate that some very basic steps might help improve productivity of
Rwanda’s coffee sector.