Schools in Rwanda's Karongi, Rusizi and Nyamasheke districts have received 135 farm machines, 90 seed planters and 45 multi-crop threshers, to speed up planting and threshing in their gardens and grow more high-iron beans for school meals. The equipment was delivered under the Scaling Sustainable School Feeding Innovations (3SFI) Project.

The project is implemented by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT through the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), in partnership with Rwanda's Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), district authorities and the schools themselves, with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Until now the work has been done by hand: planting, threshing and shelling maize, season after season, a burden that grows with the size of a school garden. The planters and threshers are meant to make the whole chain from sowing to threshing quicker, reduce labour and cut losses, so that the gardens produce more food with less effort from pupils and staff.

Head teachers see the difference. At GS Gihundwe and JillBarham School in Rusizi District, Naason Munyemana and Pastor Joel Niyigena expect the machines to lighten garden work and improve the quality of meals. "These machines will make it easier for us to grow high-iron beans and will improve the quality of the meals we provide," said Munyemana, who committed to proper management of the equipment and training for staff.

At Ecole Secondaire Tyazo in Nyamasheke District, head teacher Pastor Kamana Louis said mechanised threshing speeds up processing after harvest, so the crop can be stored safely and reach the kitchen sooner.

The Alliance authors, Yvonne Uwase Munyangeri, David Muhawenimana and Janviere Umurungi, write that the real opportunity is to make school gardens more productive, less labour-intensive and more relevant to pupils' lives, while putting high-iron beans on the plate.

Source: CGIAR