Building resilience of Rwandan farmers to changing climate

Rwandan farmers trained on climate information are now able to use climate information services to make decisions about when to plant, which crops to plant and which inputs to use. The farmers are trained through the Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) approach which builds on the existing national extension service model known as “Twigire Muhinzi.”

So far, 2600 farmers from Kayonza, Burera,Ngororero and Nyanza Districts have been trained to gather climate information, analyze and decide the right time for cropping. This activity has been undertaken with the initiative of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in collaboration with Meteo Rwanda and the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) via Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB).

Through the Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA), the farmers are empowered to understand, interpret and disseminate climate services information.

This initiative is being undertaken currently due to the fact that most of Rwandan farmers still rely on rain-fed farming practices. And the current climate change is the main challenge to the agriculture sector as smallholder farmers do not have full access to climate information.

The Climate Services for Agriculture Initiative aims to develop a fully functional and sustainable climate service that provides a range of information products and services, which will inform and support the various technical offices, policy and decision-makers within the Government of Rwanda, farmers, and others working in the agricultural sector in Rwanda to make informed decisions and improve climate risk management in the face of a variable and changing climate.

Beatha Mukamana, a farmer from Mbarara Cell, Rwinkwavu Sector of Kayonza district, praises the initiative, noting that the training has increased their resilience to cope with climate change effects.

“The climate information we get help us to plan for our daily agriculture activities; thus we decide what seeds to plant depending on weather information forecast,” says Mukamana.

In addition to farmers, explains Desire Kagabo, the Head of Climate Services in CIAT, they also trained staff from RAB, METEO Rwanda and sector agronomists in the four pilot districts of Kayonza, Burera, Ngororero and Nyanza. This similar training sessions will be taken to other districts countrywide within the next three years to help farmers make informed decisions based on climate information services.

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