Rwanda’s school feeding initiative brings technology to gardens
Schools in Rwanda’s Karongi, Rusizi and Nyamasheke districts have received 135 farm machines to speed up planting and threshing, reduce labour and losses, and boost production of nutritious, high-iron beans for school meals under the 3SFI Project.
- Agricultural Innovation
- Climate-Smart Agriculture
- nutrition
Rwanda’s school feeding initiative brings technology to gardens
Schools in Rwanda’s Karongi, Rusizi and Nyamasheke districts have received 135 farm machines to speed up planting and threshing, reduce labour and losses, and boost production of nutritious, high-iron beans for school meals under the 3SFI Project.
The old way takes time. Planting by hand. Threshing by hand. Shelling maize by hand. Season after season, the work becomes heavier especially for schools with larger school gardens
Today, the same work is getting a technological boost. Across Karongi, Rusizi and Nyamasheke districts, schools have received 90 seed planters and 45 multi-crop threshers to make everything from planting to threshing quicker and more efficient.
This gesture is part of the Scaling Sustainable School Feeding Innovations (3SFI) Project, implemented by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT through the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), in partnership with local government institutions mainly the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), Ministry of Agriculture and Animal resources (MINAGRI), the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), districts and schools and with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The real opportunity lies in using technology to make school gardens more productive, less labor-intensive and more relevant to students' lives.