ABSTRACT
The Rubaya community gene bank, located in the Rubaya sector of Gicumbi district in Northern Rwanda, is managed by the Kundisuka cooperative. Implementation of the project was supported by the staff of the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) in cooperation with Bioversity International. The community gene bank has begun collecting seeds from farmers in neighbouring villages and regenerating plant material that can be stored in the gene bank. The community gene bank collaborates with the Isonga Mw'Isango youth cooperative and is also linked to other farmer and public organizations at the national level, such as Caritas Rwanda, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) working in the agriculture sector, and RAB. However, the Rwanda Cooperative Authority provides advice to the cooperative committee members on how to balance between the prescribed varieties and their varieties of choice. The community gene bank has established connections with RAB at the national level and Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organisation at the regional level to obtain technical support.
