Farmer Field Schools (FFS) approach to food security

Session: The Farmer Field School approach has been used all over the world to transfer technologies to farmers in a sustainable, participatory and experiential way. As communities are increasingly faced with food insecurity and climate change, there’s a need to involve farmers in validating systems and even customizing them to further answer their needs; this is why Farmer Field Schools can be a great tool to do just that. Sustainable farming techniques and answering food insecurity are some of our communities’ greatest and most immediate needs, it’s only fair that we facilitate the solution finding process.

Brian Neza, MCC/PDN CA Project Coordinator; is a MINAGRI (Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Rwanda) certified FFS Master Trainer and contributed to the training of over 2,500 facilitators on different commodities. He currently coordinates a project on food security and conservation agriculture – running in 5 districts across Rwanda -- and helped in the integration of FFS methodology as a sustainable way to train smallholder farmers and harness synergy in communities. Passionate about conservation and food security, Brian values lessons from farmers themselves as it is the best way to design interventions that address their needs in a sustainable way.