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 Commercialization 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 in 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 girl’s 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.

I am currently leading 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 girl’s empowerment and food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa. The programme works in six countries across East, West and Southern Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe) representing a diverse range of commercialisation contexts and activities. In addition, I lead the Young African Researchers in Agriculture Network (YARA) which was launched in 2014 at the African Union Head Quarters in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and intends to bring together young and early career African researchers in agriculture in Africa in order to cultivate the culture of supporting one another, sharing information, networking and collaborating for research projects; all of which contribute towards enhancing research capacity in agrarian transformation on the African continent. I am also finalising my doctoral research project and the topic of my PhD is: “Generational Implications of Commercial Farming in the Highlands Region of Kenya”.

• Cyriaque Hakizimana (2021) Challenges and opportunities to empower young agri-entrepreneurs to invest in agriculture and food systems in South Africa. FAO, Rome (upcoming)
• C. Hakizimana & J. 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
• Cyriaque Hakizimana, 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, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2016.1260555
• David Neves and Cyriaque Hakizimana (2015) Space, Markets and Employment in Agricultural Development: South Africa Country Report. Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies Research Report no. 47. Available at: http://www.plaas.org.za/plaas- publication/rr47-smeadSA-dn_ch
• Hakizimana, C. and May, J. (2011) Agriculture and Poverty Reduction: A Critical Assessment of the Economic Impact of the Avocado Industry on Smallholder Farmers in Giheta – Burundi. Available at: http://sds.ukzn.ac.za