Foreword
This study investigates the effect of the land use consolidation (LUC) policy on household
wealth accumulation in Rwanda and the role played by urbanisation. The key questions of the
study are :
* Are households whose agricultural lands are in the land use consolidation program
wealthier than those whose agricultural lands are not in the land use consolidation
program ?
* To what extent does the land use consolidation program influence household wealth
accumulation in Rwanda ?
* What is the role of urbanisation in agricultural land reform in stimulating household
wealth accumulation ?

To answer these questions, this study used data from Rwanda’s 2015, 2018, and 2021
Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) surveys. The results of the
study confirm that the LUC program positively contributes to household wealth accumulation.
Furthermore, this study demonstrates that implementing the land use consolidation policy
accompanied by urbanisation, substantially shifts households from the poorest, poor, and
medium wealth categories to the wealthy and wealthier categories. Notably, land consolidation
stimulates the mass production of agricultural products, promotes rural revitalisation, and
stimulates industrialisation, which leads to urbanisation on the one hand. On the other hand,
urbanisation creates job opportunities which stimulate household income and the efficiency of
agricultural markets. In this study, urbanisation is defined as a household’s likelihood of being
in an urban area.

From a policy perspective, this study suggests that implementing a land use consolidation
policy supported by urbanisation would play a crucial role in significantly improving wealth
accumulation in Rwanda more than implementing the LUC policy independently. This
accompaniment of LUC and urbanisation would also play a key role in supporting the country
to achieve inclusive growth and its ambition of becoming a Middle-Income Country by 2035
and a High-Income Country by 2050.

Seth Kwizera
Executive Director
Economic Policy Research Network (EPRN Rwanda)
www.eprnrwanda.org

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