Mission

From Starbucks to baristas at McDonalds and the emergence of the fair trade label, I wonder how many people ever contemplate the journey of the coffee in their cup. Through a deeper study of higher education in developing countries, I found a unique partnership between Michigan State University, Texas A&M, the University of Rwanda, and USAID. The Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL) assisted the nation of Rwanda in its efforts to rebuild from the aftermath of the war and genocide of 1994. PEARL works with rural communities across Rwanda to generate income through agricultural product development and market linkages. The project trained 17 faculty members from Rwanda at MSU and Texas A&M, assisted in curriculum development at the University of Rwanda, established an outreach center where coffee farmers in Rwanda can glean knowledge created in the university setting, and implemented washing station and cupping technology for coffee co-operatives.

While visiting MSU, I visited a CEO of a coffee company who was one of the first buyers. He showed me the whole coffee production process and spoke about his reasoning for buying coffee from Rwanda. You can buy specialty Rwandan coffee at Whole Foods or on the Paramount website.

In speaking with both students from Rwanda and program administrators, it seems clear that one of the most successful components of the project stems from the diffusion of the mission of a land grant college. From its inception, MSU was designed to be of service to its surrounding community and to transfer knowledge from the laboratory to the farmland. This land grant mission is now taking on a global flavor. The model seems to be an appropriate way for universities in developing countries to facilitate education in a way that links university knowledge, human capacity building, and technology transfer to communities in a way that reduces poverty. The participants in the co-operatives assisted by PEARL and all of its participants provide a model representation of how we can move away from the ivory tower university and move toward a more globally responsive land grant mission.

Labels: coffee, development, Rwanda, universities