The module of Farm Management and Agriculture Finance deals with the general concepts, principles and methods of farm management as well as the aspects and challenges of financing agriculture. Without being exhaustive, the course will address the economic principles of agricultural production, the different approaches and tools for farm management: economic, analytical, systemic and strategic as well as the risk in agriculture and the role of the different actors. The course will also provide students with skills for developing a strategic plan for the development of farms using economic optimization tools (General Algebraic Modeling Systems, GAMS) and development of a technical management advice report and decision making tools for technical and economic direction of the farm.

Small and medium enterprise strength comes from the ability of smaller firms to react quickly and flexibly to adapt to market realities and to take advantage of opportunities that would not be an advantage to larger firms. Small enterprises grow to medium enterprises as they are increasingly able to develop the resources to expand out of their local economic system. Thousands of small companies operating at the micro level, taking advantage of local resources and opportunities, form the base of a healthy economy by providing local services, jobs and supplying or processing for larger firms and markets.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and micro enterprises in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries account for over 95% of all firms, 60-70% of employment and 55% of GDP and create the majority of new jobs, indicating the impact SMEs have on employment. In contrast, currently over 80% of Rwandans are engaged in agricultural production. The SME sector, including formal and informal businesses, comprises 98% of the businesses in Rwanda and 41% of all private sector employment — though the formalized sector has much growth potential with only 300,000 currently employed. Most micro and small enterprises employ up to four people, showing that growth in the sector would create significant private sector non-agricultural employment opportunities (Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2010). Therefore, the broad objective of this course is to enable the students develop the competence and skills to identify some strategies for developing and managing small and medium enterprises with a focus on agribusiness sector.

The module of Agricultural Production Economics and Applied Econometrics is designed for helping students to learn advance the study of agricultural production economics and to learn the econometrics applied to agricultural sector. It is divided into two main parts: Agricultural Production Economics and Applied econometrics. The Agricultural Production Economics focuses on food industry, agricultural production and demand, agricultural products marketing, farm service sector, food and economic development government involvement in agriculture. The applied econometrics focuses on enabling students at undergraduate levels to start being familiar with basic concepts of empirical analysis for potential applications in their future. More specifically, teaching in this component is to enable students understand the practical and theoretical foundation of regression analysis;  cope with practical consequences related to hypothesis violation of specified models such as Multicollinearity, Heteroscedasticity, and Autocorrelation; to specify and estimate an econometric model based on agricultural economics  theory  through assignments; and introduce students to the application of the SPSS 17.0 for windows for data processing and  analysis.

Objective of the Module

The objective pursued in the context of this module is to teach students how to analyze in a systematic and comprehensive way a given agribusiness and regional situation, as well as to define in a participatory process the agribusiness development strategy and the measures to be taken. It will also make it possible to express early agricultural needs and ensure a regionally coordinated approach with other territorial claims.

Content: Introduction on the school of agricultural entrepreneurship, how to make profit in agriculture, know the units to know his resources, manage his farm for enough food, exit and entry of money, find out if you are doing good business, make decisions in agribusiness, seize opportunities to diversify your farming activities for more income throughout the year, how to make a agribusiness enterprise more competitive, how to manage farm business capital throughout the year, how to get good financial services in agribusiness.

Why is agricultural planning timely? What is agricultural and regional planning? To whom is regional planning useful? Examples of Successful Applications, how does regional planning work? Who gives the mandate of a regional planning? How does regional planning relate to the projects and plans that triggered it? What are the factors leading to success?

Learning Outcomes 

Having successfully completed the module, students should be able to:

Define and organize agribusiness, and describe the major farming systems found in Rwanda and elsewhere in the world;

Understand the principles of agribusiness management, environment and regional agricultural planning

Use approaches of systems analysis to analyse to undertake new business in agriculture

Describe the major uses of different low external inputs technologies (Animal manure, compost, rotation, improved fallowing, biomass transfer and Alley Cropping) in relation to direct benefits 

The following textbooks are recommended for reading:

Francis, C.A., 1986. Multiple cropping Systems. MacMillan Publishing Company. New York, USA. Pp 1 to 82 and 133 to 183

McIntire, J., Bourzat, D. and Pingali, P. (1992) Crop-livestock Interaction in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, USA. The World Bank. 245pp.

Mowo, G.J, Shem, M.N, Kanuya, N.L, Njeru, R. and Nyagahungu, I. 2006. Integrated Watershed Management. Appropriate Approach to Natural Resource Management in Rwanda. ISAR, Kigali Rwanda

Joyce, L.M., Okigbo, B.N. 1986. Understanding Africa’s Rural Households and Farming Systems. Westview Press, USA.

The module of Applied Econometrics in Agriculture is designed for helping students to advance econometrics methods and apply them to the analysis of agricultural problems. It is divided into two main parts: Advanced econometrics and Agricultural Price Analysis. The advanced econometrics focuses on enabling students at undergraduate levels to start being familiar with basic concepts of empirical analysis for potential applications in their future. More specifically, teaching in this component is to enable students understand the practical and theoretical foundation of regression analysis; cope with practical consequences related to hypothesis violation of specified models such as Multicollinearity, Heteroscedasticity, and Autocorrelation; to specify and estimate an econometric model based on agricultural economics theory through assignments; and introduce students to the application of the SPSS 17.0 for windows for data processing and  analysis. The Agricultural Price Analysis puts focus on knowledge of markets and the entities and factors that impact market equilibrium outcomes, especially equilibrium prices and quantity. This is of great importance for formulating informed decisions in production and demand markets. It also focuses on facts specific to agricultural markets and prices with regard to the determination of factors influencing supply and demand decisions and impacts on market outcomes, focusing on prices determination, fluctuations and estimations/forecast.

Agribusiness Value Chain Management is designed to develop the student’s knowledge of agricultural systems, finance and human resource management and provides a detailed insight into marketing and the industries supporting agricultural production, processing, transportation and supply chain strategy

This course provides guidance to the students of Level 3 RDA on how project design, monitoring, and evaluation can better incorporate and address environmental issues  in agricultural sector within the typical project cycle. 

It will give students an understanding of the most common processes, tools, techniques, and theories that are necessary to evaluate an agricultural project. Through case study exercises and discussions, participants will learn on how to design and implement monitoring and evaluation processes that strengthen accountability and learning, and contribute to agricultural project effectiveness.

Welcome Message

Dear Students,

You are welcome to the module ALI2173 Rural Construction.

1.1. Overview of Objectives and Content

This module includes three units: Construction Materials, Soil Mechanics & Foundations, and Construction Technology. Students completing this module will gain a thorough understanding of various construction materials, their properties and uses, different construction methods for various types of buildings, and the physical properties of soil.

1.2. Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this module will be able to:

1. Identify and Evaluate Construction Materials: Students will be able to identify various construction materials, understand their properties, and evaluate their suitability for different construction projects.

2. Analyze Soil Properties for Foundation Design: Students will gain the ability to analyze the physical properties of soils and apply this knowledge to design appropriate foundations for various types of buildings.

3. Apply Construction Techniques: Students will demonstrate proficiency in applying different construction techniques for various building types, ensuring structural integrity and compliance with industry standards.

4. Integrate Sustainable Practices: Students will be able to integrate sustainable practices into construction projects, considering environmental impact and resource efficiency in the selection of materials and construction methods.

3. Indicative content

Construction Materials (Theory): Wood. Source of timber, Classification of timber. and their mechanical properties. Sand- Stones-sources, rocks. Classification of stones, stone quarry. Qualities of good building stones and their testing. Bricks-manufacturing, classification, characteristics of good bricks. Iron and steel-manufacturing process. Composition and source of iron ore. Wrought iron, steel. Characteristics and use of steel. Preservation of iron and steel. Cement-manufacturing. Characteristics of cement, concrete and mortars. Plaster and paints.

Practical:  -    To show different building materials and their use in farm infrastructures.

-          Test the qualities of good bricks.

-          Visit of stone quarry.

 Building construction (Theory): Introduction- Soil testing and suitability for building construction. Type of buildings-components of building. Concrete and RCC, Stone masonry-Materials for stone masonry. Classification of stone masonry - Tools and implements for stone dressing. Type of bricks masonry. Supervision of brick works. Type of foundations, types of walls. Lintel and arches-classification. Beams and columns, flooring. Door and windows, stairs. Roof and roof covering. Plastering. Paints and painting. Aesthetic aspect of building.

Practical: Making cement mortor, cement concrete, RCC, brick and stone masonry .

                : Visit of carpentry units making window, doors.

               : Visit of brick kilns, dams and building sites etc.

Engineering drawing (Theory): Design and Drawing – Introduction. Definitions – scope and applications, Scale – Definition – Type of scale – Scale selection – use of scales, Plane figures. Types and names. Geometric properties. Geometric constructions – straight lines – perpendicular – parallel lines. Tangents, Circles and polygons. Inscription – Circumscription, Reference planes – Cartesian planes - auxiliary planes. Orthographic projections – projection of points – lines – planes and solids, Concept of plan – elevation and sections. Three-dimension drawings.

Practical: Exercise on Design and Drawing,  Use of scales in class room exercise, Drawing plane figures, Geometric constructions-Straight lines-Perpendicular lines-Parallel lines -  Tangents, Circles and polygons - Inscription -   Circumscription, Reference planes - Cartesian planes  - Auxiliary planes, Orthographic projections   - Projection of points –   Lines -   Planes and solids, Concept of plan - Plan and Elevation -  sectional views, Three dimension drawings.

5.      Learning and teaching strategy

• Class lectures are used to impact essential knowledge relating to desired aims and out comes,
• Student centered approach is insured whereby most activities will done by the students and the lecturer acting as a promoter, facilitator and referee,
• Group tasks completion and feedback,
• Group discussions on topical issues,
• Practical sessions on field to ensure skill development.

6. Assessment Strategy

The assessment is done through:

• Continuous assessment tests (CAT)
• Group presentations and debates
• Reports on practical exercises from laboratory and field work
• Final examination

7.  Strategy for feedback and student support during module

The teaching team will be available to students for consultation,

• Analyse the results of continuous tests to find out problems and understanding difficulties to solve them,
• Group exercises to develop team spirit and active participation,
• Referencing books to help them to have in-depth understanding on the particular aspect of the modules,
• Laboratory and Field practical will be administered to enhance skills,
• Revision/ model questions.

8. Indicative resources

Physical resources

1. Farm infrastructures
2. Different building materials and their uses;
3. Fabrication of small objects
4. Visit of carpentry and blacksmith workshop.
5. Laptop,
6. Projector
7. Mini-drafter
8. Drawing board.

Books

1. Building construction B.C. Punmia, Ashok Kumar Jain and Arun Kumar Jain
2. Construction technology Roy Choudhari
3. Construction technology  Madan Mehta
4. Building construction, Sushil Kumar, 2003
5. Rural Building Reference book, Stichting Kongregate, 1986
6. Civil engineering Drawing, Gurcharan Singh, 2004

           And other relevant books of renowned authors will be added

      Websites for further reference

1. CAVM, Nyagatare library collections
2. Civil Engineering websites

Welcome message

Dear Students, Welcome to Soil Water Quality module. This module thaught in Irrigation and Drainage program. It amis at introducing students to Soil physical and Chemistry, Irrigation and water Quality Assessment and Soil and water management..  

It covers three units: 

Unit 1.Soil physics and chemistry

Unit 2. Irrigation water quality Assessment and 

Unit 3. Soil Management

By the end of this module, you are supposed to be able to:

1.Assess of soil physical and chemical characteristics for water conservation and plant production.

2. Demonstrate the soil and water management techniques in fields

3. Advise stakeholders on soil and water management techniques and their relevance in sustainable agriculture

4. To take sample for water quality tests

5. To carry out soil and water tests

This module  will be taught in Blended delivery mode, 50 % will be in face to face sessions and remaining  50% of the time will be online via the UR e-learning Platform

All the best!!!


Soil and Water Quality © 2023 by University of Rwanda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This module is entitled "Rural Water Supply"  This module contains hydrology, hydraulics and rural water supply and sanitation. At the end of the module, students would possess in depth knowledge of water supply and sanitation infrastructures.

Welcome to the irrigation module, this module will equip students with deep knowledge in irrigation water requirement, and different types of irrigation systems and skills of different parts of irrigation systems, their planning, lay out, implementation and management.Welcome to the irrigation module, this module will equip students with deep knowledge in irrigation water requirement, and different types of irrigation systems and skills of different parts of irrigation systems, their planning, lay out, implementation and management.

The aim of this module is to provide a link between school mathematics and that required for engineering. The module is composed by 4 parts including calculus on  functions of one real variable, numerical and function series, introduction to matrix theory as well as elements of vector spaces.

This module focuses on the presentation and the discussion of the basis methods for the numerical resolution of problems, and notably for the numerical resolution of equations.  The module presents the construction of numerical method from principles of basis, the introduction to the analysis of the errors and to the assessment of the efficiency of the methods in terms of computation. It deals with good understanding of writing algorithm for different numerical methods implemented using a symbolic computer analysis package Matlab to program the numerical methods.

Welcome to the Complex Analysis Module

This course will introduce the students in applying Complex Analysis to model Engineering and Physics problems. the course start by generalities on complex analysis (Complex numbers, complex differentiation and integration) , secondary the Comformal mapping are introduced and we shall end the course by devoloping  the potential theory which is very important to Scientists and Engineers.

Uwimbabazi Ruganzu Leon Fidele(PhD), Email: ruganzu01@gmail.com, Tel: 0784878618.

WELCOME TO THE MODULE OF ANALYTICAL MECHANICS

This module introduces some fundamental concepts in analytical dynamics, and illustrates their applications to relevant problems.

The module covers the calculus of variations, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulation of dynamics, Poisson brackets, Canonical transformations and Hamilton- Jacobi Equations. The approach is necessarily mathematical. Analytical mechanics provides advanced prove elegant and versatile in solving dynamical problems. 

Mathematical Biology is an interdisciplinary course that applies mathematical methods to model, analyze, and understand Biological Systems. The course introduces students to fundamental techniques in Differential Equations, Difference Equations, and Dynamical Systems, and demonstrates their applications to problems in Biology, Ecology and Epidemiology.

Topics include population dynamics, predator–prey models, epidemic models, enzyme kinetics, genetic modeling, age-structured models, and biological oscillations. Emphasis is placed on formulating mathematical models from biological principles, analyzing model behavior, interpreting results in biological terms, and, where appropriate, comparing with experimental or real-world data.

Through case studies and projects, students will develop both the theoretical and computational skills necessary to investigate complex biological systems, and will appreciate the role of mathematics in advancing biological and medical sciences. For numerical simulations, some programming experience (e.g., MATLAB, Python, or R) is recommended.