Free Farmers from Poverty & Educate their Children

The annual exhibition is Rwanda’s most important event focused on agriculture, where private companies, government bodies, and civil society organizations involved in agriculture showcase their achievements from the past year. Fair Planet set up a booth at the exhibition, where we presented our accomplishments in Rwanda. Given the exhibition’s proximity to our project site, we also organized daily tours to our research field.

At our booth, we displayed tomato and pepper seedlings produced in our nursery, potato tubers from our trial in Kinigi (northern Rwanda), and specially developed vegetable cultivation and plant protection guides tailored for Rwandan farmers. Throughout the week, hundreds of farmers visited our booth each day, asking questions, showing interest in the results, and even taking home cultivation guides. Additionally, agricultural students, farmers from distant regions, and representatives from various input supply companies visited the booth, exploring potential collaborations with our project.

Dozens of farmers participated in our daily field tours, where they received detailed explanations from our local team about the activities and results of the demonstration plots.

On August 7, 2024, we hosted an open day for our partners, attended by representatives from Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture, the International Seed Federation (ISF), seed companies' professionals and local distributors, university representatives, and farmer organizations. During the event, we presented the outcomes of the past year's activities, held discussions on future initiatives, and visited the project’s demonstration plots. The event was highly successful and greatly contributed to raising awareness of the critical role of seeds in ensuring food security in the developing world.

Links:

• Our Facebook page
• Our Instagram
• Some of our activities in Rwanda

FAIR PLANET IS OPENING EXCITING NEW PROGRAMS IN ETHIOPIA

Our most recent visit to Ethiopia was all about planning, collaborations, and managing the resources to support our ongoing and future agricultural projects there. It was an exciting trip filled with many productive meetings, field visits, and community engagements.

On May 7, we met with Ager, who is crucial to our association in Ethiopia to discuss how to streamline operations, explore ways to enhance our collaboration with the local university, create new promotional materials, and prepare an annual work plan. One interesting idea being considered is inviting Agger to Israel for a week of intensive work instead of sending an entire team to Ethiopia.

The following day, we visited our initial test fields in Harari. Everything is looking fantastic, except for the tomatoes which suffered from unexpected rain.

Our Open Day event in Harari was a highlight, with about 50 local farmers and 15 university guests attending, including a vice president. The event was well-organized thanks to our dedicated volunteers and Liron, who ensured everything ran smoothly. Most important, all the farmers were incredibly engaged, asking many insightful questions and listening intently to the answers.

We also had a fruitful conversation with Prof. Isaac about a new drip irrigation project for 10 local farmers. The university will fund the systems, and we will provide the necessary training. This would be a really important step forward as the initiative aims to significantly improve water use efficiency and boost crop yields.

We also explored a possible collaboration regarding our planned coffee project with the universit’s. Prof. Wassu. He specializes in coffee research, and is open to working with us and providing research students for the project. This could lead to really exciting developments in our efforts to support local coffee farmers who are increasingly threatened by the pressures of climate change and the global economic.

On May 9, we hosted another successful Open Day in Dire Dawa. This attracted 80 visitors including local farmers and representatives of various local and nationwide agricultural organizations.

The engagement from the farmers were very encouraging, showing their keen interest in improving farming practices and adapting new techniques.

Throughout this visit, we identified some general points for improvement, such as finding a more suitable base in Dire Dawa and preparing a training program for maintaining drip systems. We also recognized the importance of securing a reliable partner to import drip systems into Ethiopia.

Looking ahead, Eden has several important meetings planned for June. These include discussions about next year’s plans, securing funding for new systems, and continuing our successful pilot projects.

We are particularly excited about the potential for expanding our drip irrigation initiatives and involving more model farmers in Harar.

In summary, our recent field trip reinforced our commitment to providing longterm support to Ethiopian farmers through innovative agricultural projects and strong partnerships. We left with a renewed sense of purpose and a clear plan for the future.

Thank you for your continued support, which makes all of this possible.