Resources of Rwanda

Rwanda is an amazing country with many different exports. Although Rwanda's exports don't bring in a substantial amount of profit for the country, they are still many different wonderful natural resources that Rwanda offers.

Their main exports, and most profitable exports, currently are coffee and tea. This is interesting to me personally because my husband and I recently started a coffee roasting company in SE Oklahoma. Although we don't import a lot from Rwanda, there is a lot of information within the coffee community about what soil types and geographical environments are more likely to grow the best beans. My husband and I have studied coffee for five years, and places like Rwanda have ideal growing conditions with their mild temperatures, volcanic soils, high altitude and steep slopes in the hills. Coffee plants grow ideally in hills where parts of the plant overshadow the fruit. “The combination of steep slopes, abundant rainfall, deforestation, and intensive farming has set in motion a process of extreme soil erosion” (Clay, Rwanda, 2015) 1.

Coffee, which was first introduced by European missionaries, has been a major cash crop in Rwanda for many years. And throughout history, when a worldwide plummet in coffee prices would occur, it would affect Rwandan economy drastically. Other crops that are grown in Rwanda include "pyrethrum, bananas, beans, sorghum, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tobacco and corn" (Countries and Their Cultures, Rwanda, )2.  

Animals such as cows, goats, rabbits, sheep and pigs are grown in Rwanda, but things like water shortages and regular disease epidemics are major hindrances for national output of agriculture.

Rwanda also mines for many different minerals. Some of these minerals include gold, sapphires, cassiterite, tungsten and coltan. The Iron Age hit Central Africa around 3,000 years ago.  "Iron was probably used for small, valuable objects such as razors, needles, and knives. As the smelting technique became more commonplace, iron came to be used for cutlasses, axes, and, eventually, hoes, which replaced the old wooden digging sticks." (Birmingham, Central Africa, 2015) 3. 

Photo- (Pilgrim, Plantains) 4.

Early pre-colonial Rwandan culture shifted from a hunter-gatherer way of life (10,000 years ago) to a lifestyle of farming. This was true of much of Central Africa when the arrival of the banana family of plants arrived. “Banana plants, like yam tubers, were propagated by cuttings and roots rather than by seeds, but they gradually spread from neighbour to neighbour until the crop had become a dominant one in many parts of Central Africa.” (Clay, Rwanda, 2015), 1. The two primary banana plants used were vegetable bananas, plantains, and sweet bananas that were brewed into beer.  (Clay, Rwanda, 2015), 1.

Bibliography-

1.  Daniel Clay, “Rwanda.” Encyclopaedia Brittanica, (June 2015), http://www.britannica.com/place/Rwanda
2. Countries and Their Cultures, "Rwanda." Advameg Inc. (2015) http://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Rwanda.html

3.  David Birmingham, “Central Africa.” Encyclopaedia Brittanica, (July 2015) http://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/The-Iron-Age

4. Timothy Pilgrim, "Plantains" Wikipedia Commons,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bananavarieties.jpg#/media/File:Bananavarieties.jpg