Assessment of maize production system during the COVID-19 pandemic in Rwanda: Case study of Kigali City Region

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 virus caused a major transformation in the food system globally including in Rwanda. This research identified and assessed the status and structure of the maize production system in the Kigali city region before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The methods adopted for this study include both quantitative and qualitative methods using primary data obtained from the participants’ interview and focus group discussions, the secondary data were obtained from national institute of statistics of Rwanda (NISR). While production, processing, distribution and consumption are the four parts of the maize production system, the study only focused on the production system. The sample size for the study was 256 respondents who were maize production system actors from the Kigali city region. The study showed that before the COVID-19 pandemic, the prize of dried maize was significantly influenced by the cost of diammonium phosphate (DAP) (p=0.000), the source of the irrigating scheme (p=0.008), being a cooperative member (p=0.000) and marital status (p=0.002). During the pandemic, DAP (p=0.109) was absent at market due to lockdowns, and farmers did not access it. Maize farmers-built responses of resilience, persistence, adaptation, transformation, and persistence to encounter the consequences of the lockdowns. Innovative responses to shortage of maize- input stocks, and poor imports were presented, which represented 26.66% of resilient responses adopted by farmers. The innovative responses to labor shortage with farm workers` migration to their home provinces before and during the implementation of containment measures were 20%. Resilience built against the absence of extension services due to restricted movements was 13.33%. Reactions to restricted movement to and from fields, and adaptation to COVID-19 pandemic containing measures were 26.66 %, while reaction to the shortage of dried -maize at the market, which shortened the maize production cycle was 13.33%. Apart from maize production, more than half of the maize selling system were women 51.61%. Women in raw maize processing were 67.67% with a 100% level of university.