About us

Every great company begins with a decision. For a small group of students and fresh graduates from the University of Rwanda's College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (UR-CAVM), that decision came in 2018, and it was not the easy one. Like most graduates, they faced the familiar fork in the road: search for a stable job, or step into the uncertainty of building something new. They chose the harder path. What began as a student club on campus, a space to test ideas and debate solutions to Rwanda's agricultural challenges, quickly outgrew its original form. Rather than waiting for opportunity, the founding team set out to create it, for themselves and for the thousands of Rwandan farmers whose potential was being held back by outdated practices, fragmented information, and limited access to reliable agricultural data. Within a year, that momentum was formalized into a registered company: AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA Ltd.

The founders, led by Abdu Usanase, Founder and CEO, shared a belief that has since become the backbone of everything we do: agriculture in Rwanda would not transform through good intentions alone, it would transform through evidence. Real change required in-depth data collection, rigorous analysis of the problems constraining agribusiness, and solutions tested against reality rather than assumption. So the team built AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA around a single engine, market-oriented, demand-driven research designed not to sit in a report but to be put into use, research that farmers, cooperatives, and institutions could act on immediately to increase productivity, add value to their produce, and build resilience against a changing climate. From that engine, two more pillars grew naturally: extension services, carrying proven techniques and knowledge directly to farmers and closing the gap between what science knows and what fields practice, and ICT for agriculture, deploying digital tools to solve the practical, on-the-ground challenges of farming in resource-limited settings, from crop input access to climate adaptation. Together, research, extension, and technology became the foundation of a company built not to advise from a distance, but to work alongside the agricultural community it serves.

What began as an idea among university friends in Musanze has grown into an organization trusted by some of the most influential institutions in Rwandan agriculture. Over the past several years, that growth has become impossible to ignore. AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA formalized a strategic partnership with the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) to accelerate the AGRIPI initiative, a milestone the company itself described as unveiling a new era in regenerative agriculture and incubation centers, marking recognition at the national level that its research-driven approach had matured from a promising idea into a dependable partner for government-scale agricultural transformation. That trust deepened further when RAB allocated 15 hectares of land in Kaniga Sector, Gicumbi District, to AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA for the implementation of a seed production hub project under AGRIPI, a tangible sign that government institutions trusted the company not just as a research partner, but as an implementer capable of managing land and resources at scale.  AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA was also honored as a top partner in a major EU-funded horticulture project, a recognition that placed the company's work alongside international standards of excellence and signaled that its impact now reaches well beyond Rwanda's borders. The circle of trust continued to widen with a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Rwanda Organization of Professionals in Agriculture and Advisory Services (ROPAAS), a partnership aimed at advancing professional extension services and strengthening digital advisory delivery for Rwanda's agriculture sector. For a company that started as a handful of students trying to close the gap between agricultural science and farmer access, being recognized by the very body representing agriculture professionals nationwide was more than a partnership, it was validation that the standard of work AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA had set for itself now met the standard the profession itself expected.

Today, AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA works alongside the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), RAB, the University of Rwanda, Kilimo Trust, and other organizations committed to the same mission, proof that the company's founding conviction, that evidence-based solutions move agriculture forward, has become a shared belief among the institutions shaping Rwanda's agricultural future. Through initiatives like SmartInput and the AGRIPI Innovation Park, AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA has moved beyond one-off projects into building lasting platforms, tools and spaces designed to scale proven agricultural technologies well beyond a single farm or a single season. What started as a handful of students with an idea is now a structured organization with dedicated leadership across research and innovation, extension, ICT, finance, and marketing, each director bringing focused expertise to a shared mission. This is not a company reflecting on what it once hoped to become. It is a company narrating what it has already built.

AGRIRESEARCH UNGUKA Ltd was never built to stay small. It was built by young Rwandans who saw a gap between what agricultural science knew and what farmers could access, and who decided, against the safer option, to close it themselves. What began in Rwanda is now growing into a continental ambition. The next chapter is about scale: reaching more farmers across Africa, deepening the science behind every recommendation, and expanding initiatives like SmartInput and the AGRIPI Innovation Park so that climate-resilient, profitable agriculture is possible for every farmer, not someday, but now.