Rwanda Animal Resources Improvement Cooperative (RARICO) has been working with fish farmers across Rwanda since 2018 with a mission of disseminating fish farming skills and knowledge to rural farmers and transferring technologies through the provision of well-skilled technicians. With 50 permanent staff, they are working with fish farmers using ponds, dams and cages. RARICO was founded under the guidance and mentoring of MINAGRI and RAB. It has approximately 90 members of different education profiles such as animal sciences, veterinary medicine, aquaculture and aquatic resources management, and related fields. Contact: www.rarico.rw, Facebook: Rwanda Animal Resources-Improvement Cooperative, X: @RARICO8

Increased Technical and Business Development Support Services to Cooperatives and SMEs Growing Fish in Rwanda

Started in March 2024, this 12-month project supports smallholder farmer cooperatives and SMEs to access affordable and relevant business development services from market-based service providers. This requires the integration of the supply and demand of business development services, such as skills training that develop the capacity of enterprises to improve their business performance. The objective of this project is to develop viable training, technical assistance and marketing products that smallholder farmer cooperatives and SMEs are willing to pay for and to foster links between the service providers and enterprises.

At a total cost £56,900, the project provides technical assistance in capacity building to develop fiduciary management tools; mapping and needs assessment of smallholder cooperatives and SMEs; developing relevant, affordable, demand-led technical and business support services; and piloting the pricing and delivery of the services to 30 cooperatives and 10 SMEs. The project is projected to reach 1,200 farmers who are each projected to earn an additional £40 per year.