ATN-Rwanda Community Development 2016 3rd Quarter Report – Written by Jean Pierre Nzamutashya Community Development Coordinator
The progress of third quarter was so good, many things going well through drilling, farming activities in communities and in our demonstration fields. For the farmers, the third quarter is a critical and determining factor for fall and spring seasons. So, we have been busy visiting farmers in their fields. We were concerned by timing, no wanting any our farmers to miss or delay to plant on time. Currently, we are working with three functional farming communities including; Mbyo, Kibungo and the ATN-Rwanda neighborhood.
Our joy relates to the work of God in these communities, where they are able to feed themselves and share God’s Word using DBS as a discovery tool. After every farming activity, it is becoming a habit to read the Bible and discuss the verses.
We have been surprised by the commitment of community in the KIBUNGO area, where 20 families were very receptive and eager to learn Farming God’s Way. As we believe, Farming God’s Way principles includ not only farming practices but also the way of life for a individual and/or family. This same belief was shared with people in Kibungo. Because of this, farmers are now testifying that they were able to access food, restore their social communion with their neighbors and made God center of their life. We can’t thank God enough for these people.
I use to cultivate my land, by ploughing the soil to become soft to receive seeds requiring much energy, and costly in time as well as financially, though I didn’t have enough money to operate all the work in the farm for my family, because I would cultivate a large field to get enough to feed my family. Unfortunately, it ended up by harvesting almost nothing.
Then I learned the FGW principles and technique of no plough, no burn and practicing crop rotation, with minimal wastage, a high standard, and working on time. These skills helped me to improve my current production up to 60kg of maize in a very small plot of land 15/10m2. Now I have my reserve to eat with my family along the season, which made me to expand farm where I can practice FGW. I really thank ATN-Rwanda and give glory to God for his grace. MUNYANEZA Pascal, a farmer in the ATN-Rwanda Community Development Program
Here are some numbers/stats from the third quarter for the Community Development Program:
- Trained 20 farmers from Kibungo cell, 12 of these are new, 7 of twenty used Farming God’s Way but have not yet been trained in class, 1 of the team is only the model in the village. He organized, and we went for training them.
- 2 of the trained men are from Kanzenze Cell.
- 1 was an intern from a nearby high school of Agriculture.
- The estimate surface covered by Farming God’s Way is about 5000 square meters
- 2 ATN staff received training on FGW in Uganda.
- We have also completed a well on 30th July that is serving between 80-100 households in Kanyenzi Village, Cyugaro Cell, Ntarama Sector.
- BICAMUMPAKA harvested 80kg of beans
- Musengimana Agnes harvested 60kg of produce
- MUNYANEZA Pascal harvested 52kg of produce
- Venuste harvested 85kg of produce
- Our demonstration field harvested 85kg of corn.
