Women geranium growers

Ikirezi cultivates geranium in collaboration with vulnerable farmers grouped into cooperatives and the  essential oil is thereafter extracted and sold to local and regional markets. The profits thus obtained are being applied to improve the livelihoods of previously vulnerable community farmers.

Healthy geranium plants at Kiyombe

After three years in operation since 2006, a recent evaluation of the Ikirezi project has identified lessons which are useful for growing rural-based and community-driven projects into national industries – the type that is presently a leader in the Rwandan essential oil industry.

Here are some lessons:

1.  Ownership handed over to community groups

Ikirezi is basically community-driven. There are three community cooperative groups at Gasabo, Kiyombe and Gahara. Ikirezi facilitated the organization of these farmers into cooperatives in which each individual farmer managed their own plots for geranium cultivation, thereby eliminating idleness and thus the potential for conflicts. A farmer’s revenue is perched to their production output. About 95% of the members are widows and orphans, and the rest are people who previously lived in poverty.

2.  Strategic partnerships always essential

Using the ASNAPP model, Ikirezi partnered several institutions including World Relief (WR), the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Authority (RIEPA), the Ministere de l’Agriculture et de l’Elevage (MINAGRI), and the National Forestry Authority (NAFA). These partners synergized with Ikirezi to achieve their respective mandates and by so doing, permitted Ikirezi to achieve hers. For example the partnership with MINAGRI, is leveraging policy support to ensure organic production methods in Ikirezi-supported farms are not comprised by conventional production practices in neighbouring farms.

3.  Quality matters

ASNAPP, Ikirezi and the partners in Rwanda identified some weaknesses in the local geranium germplasm and arranged for the importation of quality germplasm from South Africa. To get the planting material right meant that, ceteris paribus, Ikirezi was setting the stage for top quality products for subsequent oil extraction. Ikirezi trained its farmers in the rudiments of geranium production using organic principles. The company acquired and installed three distillation units where oil of international standards is extracted by well-trained technicians, and obtained certification for its oil. Organic certification opened the company up to a niche and quality-based marketplace accessible only to a select few of essential oil producers worldwide. The first oil was produced in 2006 and presently, Ikirezi is an industry leader in Rwanda.

4.  Giving meaning to farmers

To own a company is great and to be surrounded by a plethora of partners is encouraging. To produce oil that is the toast of the market is even more reassuring. However, until these translate into visible changes in the livelihood situation of farmers, they would soon abandon all the niceties of industrialization and modernism that an oil distillation plant portrays and relapse into subsistence farming. Ikirezi responded to this challenge and extended employment opportunities to the farmers and their dependants. Farmers are now making total revenues of 35 390 587 Rwandan Francs (about USD 62 000) from oil sales, besides their income from the sale of geranium leaves.

The socio-economic impact has been equally visible. About 50% of the farmers are investing in housing, livestock production and caring more about the health and education of their children. An overwhelming 100% of the farmers in Gahara and Kiyombe have now opened savings accounts with their local banks.

5.  Diversification for sustainability

Ikirezi has moved a step further. The company is trying other plants such as lemongrass and eucalyptus for oil extraction. Trial runs for commercial extraction began in July 2009. The company has therefore acquired additional plots to meet its expansion objectives. Like all markets, volatility in the geranium essential oil market is not uncommon. In such periods, Ikirezi expects to revise its production mix to sustain profitability and to generate income to its owners – the farmers.