Rwanda has one of the highest population densities in Africa and faces a real
problem of land scarcity. Muller (1997) after using data collected during the agricultural
year 1982-1983, notes that the average land area farmed by each household was at that
time already very small (1.24 ha), but it enabled the average household to obtain a
surplus of about 10% of the average consumption. The declining availability of farmland
is a consequence of population pressure, the local inheritance system and the lack of
sustainable livelihood alternatives for less educated people. With an inheritance system in
which each son inherits an equal amount of land from his father, each generation has a
shrinking of farm sizes in areas where supplemental land to clear or buy is difficult to
attain (Olson 1994)