Agriculture is the main economic sector in Rwanda and greatly influences food security, 86% of the total population of Rwanda are employed in agriculture but 80% of the total population mainly derives survival from agriculture. Of all these people 2,165,000 of them are smallholder farmers and most of them are not able to maximize their agricultural production which leads to food insecurity being a serious issue in Rwanda where 18.7% of Rwandan households are food insecure with 1.7% of them suffering from severe food insecure. Smallholder farmers who are depending on agriculture on daily basis need to maximize their production, for this to be possible there are several factors needed to be tackled which include adopting best agriculture practices. This is where I have come up with a project “food insecurity eradication starts with smallholder farmers”.
Food insecurity starts with smallholder farmers came into my mind after observing how Rwanda has a large scale for cultivation, but the production from it is still not enough such that everyone can afford three meals a day constantly. Agriculture in Rwanda is indeed developing but people are employing themselves in intensive agriculture which is the reason why food insecurity is still a conspicuous issue, especially in rural areas.
Regarding this issue, I have realized that once agriculture production for smallholder farmers has increased the problem will be solved. As I am a student at Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, studying agriculture conservation I found it as an opportunity to change people’s lives with the help of knowledge I already have and the one I will be gaining. I thought this project after observing in the community where I live especially even at home as we are farmers, the production is decreasing season after season, and this was not only our issue but also the whole community. I come to realize that there were many reasons behind this production decline, but I have tackled some which were obvious like planting one crop season after season, no intercropping practices, no cover crops which are being cultivated, and other simple things they are not adopting which are crucial for optimal yield. This is where I realize that there is a lot I can contribute starting with my community.
Firstly, I will be working at the community level as the first thing is advocating best agriculture practices to boost agriculture production which can eradicate food insecurity. For local farmers adopting new practices is hard and convincing them would be difficult that is why I will be working with their leaders to attract their attention, being with their leaders would make them believe what I will be telling them. I Will ask them to flashback and compare their today’s production with the one for the previous five years which is obvious that there is a big difference. Once realizing this, I will list some causes for this production decline and provide solutions that will resolve this issue.
Moreover, after explaining to them what I want them to practice in agriculture there would be a demonstration, and this will be done for a small number of farmers for them to see that what they have been doing is different from what is supposed to be done. This will be the best way of addressing the food insecurity issue because once production has increased everyone will be able to get access to three meals a day regularly.
To conclude, changing people’s lives is not a one-step action it is an ongoing process, and this is where I will need to follow up and make sure that farmers are doing it in the best way and analyze where there are some improvements needed. For this to succeed working on it alone would be much more challenging and that is why after analyzing the progress of this project I will corroborate with people of the same interest in changing people’s lives for more contribution not only in Rwanda but also the whole Africa.