The Digital Tools Revolutionizing Rwanda's Coffee Industry – CoffeeTalk

TechnoServe, in partnership with the Government and the European Union, has been working to enhance Rwanda’s coffee supply chain through digital innovation. The four-year initiative, launched in 2020, has reached over 50,000 smallholder farmers, supported 50 coffee washing stations, and collaborated with leading coffee exporters to improve production and quality, strengthening Rwanda’s competitiveness in the global specialty coffee market. Central to the workshop’s training were digital tools developed to help sustain good agricultural practices, streamline production, ensure quality, and promote sustainability.

The tools include the Digital Farm Extension Monitoring System (DFEMS), Coffee Processing Quality Index (CPQI) checklist, and the Coffee Cooperative Health Check application. As the program nears its conclusion in January 2025, ownership of the digital tools will transfer to NAEB to ensure the long-term impact and widespread adoption of these innovations across the country’s coffee industry.

Olivier Kamana, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, highlighted that the project introduced three digital tools aimed at improving the extension services provided to farmers, explaining that the tools will replace traditional paper-based methods. The tools will not only support farmers with technical advice but also provide them the ability to access crucial farming information at any time.

Olive Nzayisenga, the project manager at TechnoServe, emphasized that the Rwanda INC project’s efforts to engage youth in the coffee sector by offering hands-on experience through internships, marking the beginning of greater youth involvement in the industry. She also highlighted the collaboration with the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) to develop quality guidelines for the coffee sector, which were validated by NAEB, aiming to improve coffee production standards across the country.

The Director of TechnoServe Labs Product Management and Engineering for TechnoServe, Sildio Mbonyumuhire, elaborated on the role of digital tools in the coffee sector, emphasizing the importance of capturing farm data to identify areas needing improvement. He explained how the tools, used by agronomists and coffee washing stations, allow stakeholders to monitor farm activities and effectively allocate resources.

Mbonyumuhire also highlighted how the tools can track farmers’ adherence to good agricultural practices, assigning scores to identify weaknesses and areas needing attention. This data-driven approach would increase both the quantity and quality of coffee production by focusing on areas that need improvement. Through the distribution of seedlings, the system can track which trees need replacement, thus automatically facilitating the growth of coffee farms.

Marcel Abimana, a participant from Gatsibo, shared how the workshop introduced him to several digital tools, like DFEMS and CPQI, that will help track farmers, improve coffee farming productivity, and maximize the quality of processing. The new digital approach gives a more uniform way of sharing knowledge across the coffee sector and ensures that all information is stored in the system and accessible to everyone involved, leading to better management and growth of the coffee sector.

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