Overall targets
Improve local farmer’s livelihood and organization in the rural areas of Gikongoro region in Rwanda to make them more shock resilient and empower them to have dialogues with the authorities in the area.
Immediate targets
1.0. By the end of the project 30,936 children, youth and adults from Gikongoro region have improved the quality of their food consumption through increased food production 2.0. By the end of the project, 5,625 households (225 groups) in Gikongoro region have an alternative income supplementing agriculture through having access to local saving and loan scheme 3.0. By the end of the project 5,625 smallholder farmers in Gikongoro region are empowered through simple advocacy to have a dialogue with the local authorities about agricultural structures.
Target groups
The primary target group is 1,875 households / 10,313 persons from 3 villages in Gikongoro communities, namely Musebeya, Gasarenda and Musange. Gikongoro communities are chosen as they are struggling with poor soil fertility and insufficient food production. It is primarily poor smallholder farmers relying on subsistence farming who are struggling to produce sufficient food to sustain their families over the year. Already existing structures at the local level means that the farmers are divided into groups of around 30 households. These groups will be used as point of departure in this project. Therefore through sensitisation the groups are encouraged to discuss if they would like to apply to be part of the project. The groups will be chosen according to the following criteria: All people in the chosen communities are invited to participate in the project disregarding gender, age, ethnicity or other social group identity. Men and women are encouraged to participate on an equal basis. However, as described earlier the agricultural activities are primarily the responsibility for the women. It is therefore a priority that at least 50 % of the participants will be women. This is to ensure that the new learning is actually implemented on the individual farmer’s fields as well. The participation of the men is however also important due to their decision making power at the household level. Each group can only contain one person per household. The secondary target group is estimated to be 3,750 households in the same or neighbouring villages in Gikongoro communities. These will be reached through the Model Farmers and/or Village Agents trained directly in the project and as such the methodologies will spread, as the benefits will be known in the communities. The local authorities and local NGOs are counted among the secondary target group because the success of this project will benefit them as well: The local authorities have a contract of performance to achieve every year, and that performance is tracked through what the farmers will have achieved themselves. The local NGOs will benefit generally from the overall social welfare improvement of the project targeted communities
Resume
Projektet hjælper mere end 10.000 udsatte bønder i den sydvestlige del af Rwanda (Gikongoro-område) med forbedrede dyrkningsmetoder efter principperne i ’Conservation Farming’ og fortalervirksomhed. En sekundær målgruppe på over 20.000 nås ifm VSLA og spredningskomponenten i conservation farming. Deltagerne trænes og uddannes og input begrænser sig til strategisk service delivery i form af geder, der har til formål at producere gødning. Gederne gives kun i form af rotative credit eller mod en tilbagebetaling. Deltagerne tilbydes ligeledes medlemskab af spare- og lånegrupper. Projekter tager afsæt i gode erfaringer fra et tidligere spare- og låneprojekt samt erfaringer fra en lignende indsats med conservation farming.