Coffee is a critical export for Rwanda and its over 350,000 coffee farming families. Despite great promise in terms of its agro-ecology and investments in quality upgrading, Rwanda has seen its production stagnate over the past two decades. In addition, coffee farmer incomes remain lower than in other East African countries. To promote the growth of the coffee sector, Rwanda's government has enacted policies aimed at increasing farmer productivity and improving the relationships between value chain actors. These approaches include centralized purchase and distribution of pesticide and fertilizer and a monopsonistic marketing policy called "zoning", which requires farmers to sell to specific coffee washing stations (CWSs), and CWSs to purchase coffee from specific farmers. Previous research found that while pesticide and fertilizer distributed improved generally since 2015, female-headed households were less likely to receive pesticide than male-headed households. It is also unclear whether zoning would improve fractious relationships between farmers and CWSs or provide CWSs with an opportunity to exploit farmers. While Rwanda's government implemented policies aimed at promoting coffee, multinational corporations have entered Rwanda's coffee sector as coffee exporters, purchasing, processing, and selling coffee onto the global market. They have consolidated exports while putting pressure on local export companies.This dissertation includes three academic papers related to policies and institutions in Rwandan coffee. The first uses semi-structured interviews with exporters and other coffee sector experts to analyze the role of export companies in Rwanda's coffee value chain. This study describes differences between local and international exporters in dealing with transaction costs, using the lens of value chain governance. The second uses a combination of a difference in differences analysis of survey data of coffee farmers and key informant interviews with CWS managers and officials to analyze the effect of Rwanda's zoning policy on services provided by CWSs to farmers. This study finds that zoning increased CWS promise and provision of second payments to farmers who were more affected by the policy. The final paper uses mental models designed based on problem tree exercises and focus groups with female household heads to better understand the challenges they face in profiting from coffee, particularly in relation to distributed inputs, and the solutions they believe could improve their production. This study finds that significant, interconnected challenges face female household heads, largely having to do with a lack of labor, lack of financing, and limited access to inputs. Participants designed numerous potential solutions, including collective action through women's associations, improved access to agricultural inputs, and more flexible financing options, among others.
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