Biography
Dr Cyriaque Hakizimana is a researcher in the Institute for Poverty, Land, and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of Western Cape in South Africa. He holds a PhD in Land, Poverty, and Agrarian Studies and his academic training is in poverty reduction approaches. His research interest is in agricultural development within the broader field of Agrarian transformation.
In recent years, he has been involved in a number of multinational projects: Land and Agricultural Commercialisation in Africa (LACA), which investigated among other things, questions related to how agrarian transitions happen and how farming models articulate the relationships between land, labour and capital in commercial enterprises themselves and the surrounding locality.
He led the Southern Africa Regional Hub of the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) programme, which aims to produce new information and insights into different pathways to agricultural commercialisation in order to assess their impacts and outcomes on rural poverty, women’s and girls’ empowerment and food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently coordinating a four-year interdisciplinary project – Medium-Scale Farmers in Rural Africa (MSFRA) – that seeks to understand how the reshaping of agro-food systems, land markets and power relations resulting from the emergence of medium-scale farmers affect agrarian economies and livelihoods in Africa. He is also coordinating the Young African Researchers in Agriculture Network (YARA) that he helped found in 2014.
Research Focus
The role of agriculture in rural development and economic transformation
Qualifications
- Masters in Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Selected Publications
- Hakizimana C, Paul Goldsmith, Abdi Aralle Nunow, Adano Wario Roba & Jane Kathure Biashara (2017) Land and agricultural commercialisation in Meru County, Kenya: evidence from three models, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 44:3, 555-573.
- Hakizimana C and Julian May (2018) Can smallholder avocado production reduce poverty and improve food security through internal markets? The case of Giheta, Burundi, Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, 27:4, 203-216, DOI: 10.1080/14728028.2018.1515041
- Hakizimana, C. and Julian May. (2011) Agriculture and poverty reduction: a critical assessment of the economic impact of the avocado industry on smallholder farmers in Giheta – Burundi. Research Report 89. Durban: School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu Natal.