Belgian agriculture project in Rwanda in top 10
An agriculture project of the Belgian development cooperation has finished among the ten best projects in the international OECD contest 'Taking development innovation to scale'. Through the project, more than 200,000 Rwandese farmers have been trained by the “Farmer Field Schools” method, developed in the 1980’s by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
For Erik Solheim, Chair of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the award honours the importance of rolling out sound ideas. “Innovation is crucial for development work, but good solutions must be systematically and strategically applied at a broader scale than is usually done. And that is exactly what the agriculture project of the Belgian development agency has achieved in Rwanda and why it was one of the ten finalists.”
In Rwanda, agriculture is – in particular for women – the principal economic activity and a prime source of revenue for most rural families. Agriculture covers 90% of the country's food needs and represents more than 70% of export revenues.
In the densely-populated Central-African country with scarce arable land, improving crop breeding and boosting productivity is crucial. But, how to do this in a village where no one has the required technical skills? And, how can you reach not just one but thousands of farmers? That’s why in 2009, the Belgian development agency and the Rwandan authorities decided to pool their efforts and develop and set up a training system for Rwandan farmers.
First efforts targeted the training of a limited number of farmers to become proficient and motivated coaches, who then in turn can train other farmers. The method does not just tell the farmers what to do, but instead they have to observe and experiment, in the field. The driving force behind these Farmer Field Schools is that farmers are entrusted with taking decisions themselves, with looking for solutions to their problems and are being empowered to face the challenges of the future. The field is the school and the plants are the teachers.
In the first phase of the project (2009-2011) 25,000 Rwandan farmers were reached. Five years later, more than 200,000 farmers have visited Farmer Field Schools. In addition, in 2014 Rwandan authorities launched the ambitious agricultural extension programme Twigire Muhinzi, which aims to train no less than 1.7 million farmers by 2020.
Three out of four accompanied farmers' groups, which have a 53% women membership, report that yields and revenue have increased with at least 50%. And there are other advantages too: farmers use fewer pesticides, they set up savings funds to pay for health care, and they discuss topics like AIDS and family planning.