Cultivating prosperity in Rwanda: the impact of high-yield biofortified bean seeds on farmers’ yield and income

In this paper, we investigate the agronomic and economic impact of cultivating seeds of improved bean varieties by smallholder farming households in Rwanda. The improved bean varieties under investigation are conventionally-bred, iron biofortified bush and climbing bean varieties, developed for high yield, climate resilience, and increased bioavailable iron content compared to commonly consumed varieties. Seeds of these varieties were delivered to 383,000 farmers across Rwanda by the time we implemented nationally representative survey of bean farmers in 2015 season B. Our findings indicate that growing the seeds of these improved bean varieties, compared to the bean planting materials used by farmers at the time, significantly enhances farmers’ yield and income. The yield increases amount to 153 kg/ha (23