The graduates who are part of a cohort of 18 students who began courses in October 2020 will impart acquired knowledge and skills to colleagues at respective institutions.
The courses were tailor-made to promote conservation agriculture rooted on three main principles including; minimum tillage and soil disturbance, permanent soil cover with crop residues and live mulches, and intercropping.
Graduates have revealed that acquired knowledge will be helpful to carry out their assignments smoothly, train colleagues on best practices in agriculture to make the sector much more relevant and to national economy without soil and environmental degradation.
“We have acquired enough skills related to high-yielding agriculture with no devastating impact to the soil and the environment. We also learnt how to impart skills to the elderly involved in agriculture. We usually grow crops after tilling all places of the garden yet the best technique is to dig a hole in which the seed should be planted,” said Richard Makuza.
Jacqueline Iradukunda working with the Association of Baptist Churches in Rwanda (AEBR) in Gasabo District has also underscored that acquired knowledge will be imparted to colleagues with a view to make agriculture more meaningful to farmers and the country at large.
“The training equipped us with adequate knowledge in soil conservation relevant to increase agricultural yields,” she noted.
John Twiringiyumukiza, a technical advisor at Tearfund and Canadian Foodgrains Bank in central Africa also reminisced on the training’s relevance and assured support.
“We trained agronomists and partners with a view to build their capacities to fast track development and efforts aimed at achieving food sufficiency. They received intensive training package on conservation agriculture, particularly climate change resilient agriculture and how to acquaint elderly farmers with skills to adopt best agricultural techniques to increase yields,” he said.
“We hope that they will pass knowledge to colleagues to join efforts geared towards enhancing conservation agriculture, and exploiting the soil to the maximum to play a big role to farmers’ economic growth and sustainably achieve food sufficiency. We shall stay closer to them to make the program a success,” added Twiringiyumukiza.
Jean de Dieu Nizeyimbabazi, the Director of Agriculture and Natural Resources Unit in Burera District urged graduates to work with districts to streamline budget plan and solve farmers’ problems.
The training was organized by Tearfund on the funding of Canadian Foodgrains Bank and other partners including Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), African Evangelical Enterprise (AEE), PND and AEBR.
The graduation ceremony which took place on Thursday 31st March 2022 was attended by representatives from Tearfund and partners, religious denominations, government officials and non-governmental organizations.
Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Tearfund’s program to train agronomists on conservation agriculture has been already rolled out in Ethiopia where it has proved success in turning arable land more productive.
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