AGRICULTURE AND FARMING
State Chancellery of the Canton of Ticino
Margherita Foundation
Vidar Suisse Foundation
Fosit
Private donor
Municipality of Bioggio
Ermotti Foundation
Directorate for Development and Cooperation SDC / Fosit
Heartfelt thanks to the supporters of the "agriculture" projects:
they have enabled everyone to achieve food security!
Great Nyamyumba: Agriculture and farming
Breeding: one cow for every family - Root Terraces: arable land for everyone
To date more than 220 hectares (543 acres) of radical terraces have been implemented, below are some details:
2005/2018 - 220 cows in the village, one Frisian bull, many births, at least one cow per family.
2007-2011 - 50 hectares in Nyamyumba:
2006 – phase 1 - 12 hectares
2007 – phase 2 - 5 hectares
2008 – phase 3 - 6 hectares
2008 – construction of a pilot barn
2009 – phase 1 bis, 2 bis, 3 bis - 3 hectares
2010 – phase 4 - 5 hectares
2011 – phase 5 - 10 hectares
2007/2010 valley - 2 hectares of forage for cattle
2007 – 4 hectares under the secondary school, to lead to autonomy
2012 – phase 6 - 5 hectares built by the community
2013 – 3 additional hectares for secondary school
2013 – rehabilitation of the slopes for better forage yield
2011 – cobstruction of a silo for seed and crop storage
2012 – construction of 50 hectares of terraces on the hill Nyakanyinya
2013 – construction of 46 hectares of terraces and distribution of cows in Nyakanyinya/Rubiha
2013 – construction of 3 hectares of terraces for the Pygmies-Batwas
2014 – continuation of the installation of terraces with lime, manure, seed,
plants fixative and french cameroun. Implementation of the remaining 4 hectares
2014-2015 – cobstruction of terraces for the Pygmies-Batwa, 16 hectares in total, including the previous 3 hectares
2015-2017 – construction and implementation of more than 10 hectares of the Komezumurimo-Mata cooperative
2016 – construction of a second silo
2017 – construction of a third silo
2020 - the construction of a maize drying silo for all farmers is under way
2017-2019 – partnership with the cooperative Komezumurimo-Mata ("continue to work"), which has 35 members and was created by the inhabitants of the Greater Nyamyumba and nearby villages.
The intensification of harvests has produced satisfactory results and trials are underway for crops less related to climate change: bananas have produced their first harvests, which are satisfactory.
Komezumurimo cultivates 25 hectares, partly entrusted and partly rented, with very encouraging results.
The project was financed by SDC Fosit, the District of Nyaruguru and Mabawa.
The terraces are distributed equally to families and managed by the "Terraces Cooperative" committee.
Drying silo
In addition to the 4 silos dedicated to the storage of crops, the farmers of Nyamyumba have a drying silo available for the production of maize.
In fact it is a particularly delicate crop and subject to mold, if not stored in suitable and ventilated places.
Built in the middle of the hills, the drying silo can be used and reached by everyone: farmers and cooperatives.
Training trips:
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Study visits to local projects are organized frequently: banana cultivation, terraces with their relative cooperatives, etc... that help the community to constantly improve itself.
The two most important visits were:
2010 - Trip to Kibungo to learn how to grow fruit bananas. In 2014 they will give the first harvest.
2013 - Trip to Ruhengeri, home of the terraces to look for new ideas. After this visit the Abadahirwa cooperative was founded in Nyamyumba the which aims to intensify production and improve sales.
It is already yielding very promising results!
Komezumurimo cooperative
Thanks to the training trips organized by Mabawa, several cooperatives were born.
In 2013, from a spontaneous initiative of a group with a strong female majority in Great Nyamyumba (4 hills), was born the cooperative Komezumurimo MATA (continue to work) dedicated to strengthening agriculture and generating more income. Initially, they worked completely independently and today Mabawa is a partner.
Consisting of 35 members, membership takes place according to strict criteria to preserve a high degree of motivation and enthusiasm for the work. The president is Frandrine Kabaganwa and the Committee has 5 members.
The cooperative has been entrusted with a plot of land of about 4 hectares on the Kajagali hill and one of about 1.5 hectares under the Mabawa house. Bananas were planted on both and wheat and maize were sown to make the most of the land. After harvesting between June and August 2017, the results are more than encouraging: a storage silo was built. In addition, as a trial run, the pilot barn created by Mabawa and the surrounding land was entrusted to it.
The work of this cooperative will also benefit other cooperatives that can follow its example and possibly collaborate with Komezumurimo.
July 2019
Theotime, faithful to the commitment made to be supported by Mabawa's master's degree in agronomy and agrobusiness, is in Nyamyumba for supervision, solving various problems and... reinforcement in Komezumurimo. Thanks Theotime!
Tea plantations
In Rwanda, tea is the crop that currently brings in the most income.
Nyamyumba farmers became interested in this type of cultivation as early as 2021, asking for microcredits for some test crops. This type of cultivation has unattainable initial costs for them (1300 CHF per hectare): high costs of the seedlings and the same for the particular fertilization they need.
After some planting tests, in which it was possible to calculate the final price per hectare, the results seem encouraging and we would like to give them this opportunity, which in the meantime has also been seized by larger cooperatives which have been able, thanks to microcredit, to start their own projects.
Once the tea has been harvested, it is necessary to take it to a dedicated place where it can be processed. A great fortune for Nyamyumba is the proximity of the Mata tea factory, which buys all the available production from the farmers, avoiding them processing costs and long-distance transport: every evening a truck passes by the village and buys the harvested tea, paying it directly to the farmer.
It is still a “work in progress" project, at the moment it is not financed by us but through local microcredits upon request and acceptance by the committee.
