1. Op-Ed: Farmer Field School Success in
Rwanda
School is in session. Today's pop quiz?
Survival. Rural farmers in the Nyaruguru
district of Rwanda's southern province are
more than ready to take on this challenge.
Their school, colloquially termed a “school
without walls”, is one of many Farmer Field
Schools (FFS) that has introduced methods
allowing these men and women not only to survive but to take steps toward a more fulfilling life for
themselves and their families. In early October, through a project supported by UN Women, the One
UN team in Rwanda, and funding from the governments of Korea, Spain, and Norway, 75 women and
men graduated from an FFS program operated by a local NGO, the Imbaraga Federation. Graduates
walk away having gained new knowledge about nutrition and modern agricultural techniques as well as
developing business skills, creating cooperatives, and increased ability to save income. This practice
can be viewed as essential for improving the agriculture sector by starting, literally, from the ground
up.
Farmer Field Schools are by no means a novel concept. The first ones were designed by the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization in Indonesia in 1989 as a means of promoting integrated pest
management. Over the years, the schools have been cultivated in numerous developing countries,
including Rwanda, tailoring their focus to relate to the specific agricultural needs of each community.
From a community level perspective, one of the particular strengths of these schools is the focus on
incorporating local knowledge and observations through practical and hands-on experiences. For
example, farmers work together to create
resource maps depicting the outlay of not
only the farming space but also the homes,
water sources, and walkways that intersect
with the farmland.
Relying on local knowledge enables
facilitators to help generate locally
appropriate, terrain-specific, solutions.
Women line up for the Farmer Field School graduation photo.
Resource map drawn by local community members

2. The global concern with food security, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, makes
the productivity of FFS all the more valuable. A Belgian Development Agency
reports that 92% of the farmer field schools in Rwanda have reported an increase
in productivity of at least 50% with the average income of the farmers doubling.
Farmers undergo a season long training to learn everything from land preparation
and pest control to crop harvesting and marketing. Training prepares them not only
to manage and operate their farms well but once they have graduated from the
program, many are certified and appointed to begin facilitating their own schools.
In this way, the FFS program is valuable not only for increasing agricultural
efficiency and production but also for the leadership, management and business
skills farmers are able to obtain.
The cooperative nature of this program allows farmers to reap the benefits of being organized as
a group. “It is very difficult as an individual farmer to get subsidies or even resources like fertilizer. But
there is power in a group” says Donata Nukabayiza, a recent graduate of a the FFS in Nyaruguru.
Cooperatives imply increased reliance on group members but with the potential of deriving greater
benefits for each individual. The entrepreneurship training that accompanies the agriculture component
of this FFS has resulted in group plans to start potato seed production for retail and another group plans
to purchase a pig for each member as a way of initiating small livestock-keeping.
Farmers' increased ability to save income is yet another positive component of the FFS. Due to
a lack of collateral, it is challenging for the rural poor in Rwanda to access credit through traditional
banks. Group members in FFS pool savings to create a credit scheme from which members can borrow
loans with low interest rates. Christine Karuyumbu, a Nyaruguru school graduate, shares her joy over
her new ability to purchase health insurance for her family and pay her children's school fees.
90% of the farmers in the Nyaruguru FFS are women which is reflective of the more
encompassing trend across sub-Saharan Africa where women are primarily involved in agricultural
activities. Although male family members were not initially supportive of the women participating in
the FFS, they were swayed by the knowledge and skills the women were gaining. Some husbands have
even made contribution to the group saving fund. This may be cause for hope that a sub-theme of
women's empowerment can be an outcropping of the FFS.
To get a better sense of the stated benefits and successes of Farmer Field Schools we need the
correct framework to provide context. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has
provided some of the criteria for Farmer Field Schools to succeed. One such criteria is ability to
92% of the
Farmer Field
Schools in
Rwanda have
reported an
increase in
productivity
of at least
50%.

3. participate. Individuals with a higher levels of education, for example, may be more likely to enroll in a
FFS. While FFS target the poor in rural areas, the poorest in a community may lack the knowledge or
the capability to participate as FFS do require a small fee to engage in the program. These same
individuals often face the daily demand of meeting needs in the present tense and are unable to spare
the time to invest in a program that requires an entire crop season to manifest benefits. Going forward,
development practitioners may seek to find ways to incorporate the most marginalized individuals in
rural communities across the country. An additional problem cited by IFPRI is that extension agents
and government personnel that work on FFS are under pressure to choose areas that will potentially
yield the best results which does not always coincide with areas where the need is greatest.
Placed in this context, we recognize that
Farmer Field Schools are neither a universal
solution to increasing rural agriculture
productivity nor do they operate with the same
level of success in each place where they are
instituted. However the success enjoyed by the
FFS in Rwanda are not a phenomenon.
All across East Africa, FFS have served as a major vehicle for farmer development. They have given
women a tool for economic and social participation and they have led to significant benefits in terms of
income and crop and livestock productivity. On a scale of 1 to 100, I would give farmer field schools in
Rwanda a solid A+.
Rwandan rural women farmers applaud their
accomplishments within the Farmer Field School training.