Founders and Partners
Howard G. Buffett
RICA’s story begins with a farmer-philanthropist’s vision. Howard G. Buffett’s commitment to support Rwanda’s development spans two decades and investments of more than $250 million since 2000, part of more than $650 million in development investments he has made across the African continent, mostly in smallholder agriculture.
Howard has for many years articulated a vision for how best to address the profound challenges most smallholder farmers face in Sub-Saharan Africa that include poor and degraded soils, a lack of technical knowledge and expertise, little access to inputs and equipment, and limited research relevant to their specific soil, disease, and pest issues. The “crazy idea that no one would be willing to fund,” as he called it, was based on an approach that revolutionized agriculture in the United States beginning in the 1850s. Howard wanted to build a context-appropriate, “land-grant” institution in partnership with a government in Africa that would combine a practical, training-based education with localized, applied research that was informed through extension.
Government of Rwanda
The Government of Rwanda, under President Paul Kagame’s strong leadership, became the ideal partner for Howard’s vision, due to the country’s robust institutions, strong commitment to development, and unique agricultural challenges, including its landscape of “a thousand hills.” From there, in close collaboration with the Government of Rwanda, the vision for RICA took shape to form a mission built around conservation agriculture, smallholder-led agricultural development, and youth leadership.
Howard also believes that agricultural development in countries like Rwanda must be led by smallholders. Rwanda cannot support large-scale urbanization, so farmers must become more self-reliant and profitable to continue to play an important role in Rwanda’s future. Solving the challenges smallholders face through the adoption of conservation agriculture practices is central to RICA’s mission.
Farming around the world also has an aging problem. Engaging young people in agriculture is critical to transforming the sector. RICA’s focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, and communications is by design. RICA seeks to attract Rwanda’s best and brightest so that they can be part of the future of agriculture at all scales: from smallholder farming to value-added processing.
RICA began because of the ambitious vision of one farmer-philanthropist. It exists today because of Howard’s unwavering financial support and the strong partnership of a visionary Government of Rwanda. RICA’s ultimate challenge remains: to seed innovations in conservation agriculture that empower smallholder development and agribusiness to maximize the potential for food produced by Rwandans for Rwandans.
With these core tenets in place, in 2017 the Howard G. Buffett Foundation committed $135 million to build RICA’s campus and to provide financial support for its initial operations. The Government of Rwanda in turn provided RICA with the land and ministerial support to develop this unique, world-class institution.
