{"id":232,"date":"2011-05-23T12:17:50","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T12:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/belgian-funded-projects-spur-rural-development\/"},"modified":"2011-05-23T12:29:42","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T12:29:42","slug":"belgian-funded-projects-spur-rural-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/belgian-funded-projects-spur-rural-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian funded projects spur rural development"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium Development Cooperation (BTC<\/span>) funded programs in agriculture, health and energy, have yielded varying success especially in the rural areas. <\/strong><\/p>\n

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The president of the board of directors, Belgian federal public service, foreign affairs, external trade and development cooperation, Dirk Achten<\/span> led a delegation to visit cassava farmers benefiting from the program in Bugesera<\/span> district and later toured the  Nyamata<\/span> hospital, where BTC<\/span> supports a mental illness unit.<\/p>\n

Farmers who concluded training on better farming of cassava plant are expected to serve as facilitators by training their colleagues. Presently, a total of 2,000 farmers are undergoing training.<\/p>\n

So far, 563 facilitators and 24,429 village-based farmers countrywide have benefited through the farmer field school (FFS<\/span>) approach. This participatory methodology built on learning by doing has helped farmers to learn better ways of preparing fields, selecting appropriate seeds, crop rotation and controlling of pests through minimal use of pesticides.<\/p>\n

The three year project was funded by BTC<\/span> to the tune of Frw<\/span> 2 billion. In that short period, farmers have seen an improvement in yields. Similarly, another four year project that covers priority crops such as Irish potatoes, maize, banana, cassava, tomatoes, and passion fruits amongst others is underway.<\/p>\n

Epimaque<\/span> Mbonimpa<\/span>, a cassava facilitator in Gatsibo<\/span> district said the traditional cassava plant was preferable to the contemporary one. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe modern plant has more disadvantages ; it\u2019s more prone to diseases, it also consumes a lot of pesticides and it\u2019s not conducive in various types of soil, yet the local one can germinate almost in all parts of the country, \u201che remarked.<\/p>\n

Another farmer was also quick to point out that consumers consider the modern cassava flour tasteless and stickier compared to the local one.<\/p>\n

he added that thought the foreign cassava breed has a bigger yield the difference was not remarkable.<\/p>\n

Trained farmers further disclosed that the modern cassava is also prone to pests yet the local one can withstand the majority of pests. The advantages of the local cassava plant is that farmers use locally made pesticides which are more affordable. \u201cThey are made from pepper and garlic and soap, it is used to eradicate fleas that spread the mosaic disease that affects the leaves of a cassava plant,\u201d the facilitator further added, \u201cAnother trick to reduce the risks of pests infection is boiling the seeds for ten minutes before planting. \u201d<\/p>\n

The delegation later visited ADEPER<\/span> Nyamata<\/span> hospital where it supports the mental health department. The assistance is in line with the national program for mental health aimed at mainstreaming mental health services in decentralized health services. So far six mental health units have been set up and are fully functional in district hospitals. Other achievements include training three specialised<\/span> psychiatrists this is also in line with support training of 127 medical general practitioners and 74 nurses in district hospitals, 328 nurses of health centers and 2571 community health workers.<\/p>\n

According to Lilian<\/span> Mulisa<\/span>, the head of psychiatric department at the hospital, most cases are related to trauma, depression and epilepsy. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe attend to approximate 161 patients in a month. Those who haven\u2019t improved are sent to Ndera mental hospital,\u201d she remarked. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belgium Development Cooperation (BTC) funded programs in agriculture, health and energy, have yielded varying success especially in the rural areas.  The president of the board of directors, Belgian federal public service, foreign affairs, external trade and development cooperation, Dirk Achten led a delegation to visit cassava farmers benefiting from the program in Bugesera district and later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[294],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-abraham-rumanzi"],"bylines":[{"id":294,"name":"Abraham Rumanzi","slug":"abraham-rumanzi","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":294,"name":"Abraham Rumanzi","slug":"abraham-rumanzi","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}