I am Thomas Simbankabo from Rwanda, 25, a recent graduate if University of Rwanda, college of agriculture animal science and veterinary medicine.
After graduation I have been looking for a way I can gain experienced in agriculture, especially in the livestock domain, where I have requested a voluntary internship at the university, in the office of Nuffic NICHE RWA 173 (‘Socio-economic improvement through crop and livestock integration system in Rwanda’) immediately after graduation.
My project is intended to foster integration of aquaculture with pre-existing livestock, crop and fish systems, to tap the benefits of the synergies which include consistent water supply to productions systems.
This is against the challenges of climate variability and it will ensure extra income from farmed fish, together with better nutrition for the household and more specifically the women and children and Rwanda. This is where my project is in clear pursuit of the first goal of the Rwanda national Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on ‘Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger’.
As a young man who wants to become an expert and entrepreneur in agriculture (livestock) production, I always look for ways to succeed. The overall goal of my project will be to enhance productivity, nutrition and incomes of households through integrating aquaculture into pre-existing crop and livestock systems among smallholder farmers in Nyagatare (Rwanda).
The specific goals of my project will be to:
- Simulate and adopt appropriate climate models for smallholder farmers practicing integrated aquaculture-agriculture systems.
- Up-scale farm productivity using efficient water budget crop-fish-livestock production.
- Develop value chains for integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture systems to boost incomes of all actors.
- Demonstrate and train smallholder farmers the benefits of adopting Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture
I have starting a personal preliminary survey of the current status of agriculture (crop-livestock) and fish production systems in Nyagatare district of Rwanda. This is so that in time I have succeed within this competition I will come up with the key performance factors for more production.
Success Metrics
- Establishment of demonstration of fish farming, crop and livestock production systems in the pilot site involved in the project
- Establishment of Farmer-led Learning Platforms in the pilot site to enable facilitation of skills and knowledge sharing amongst wider audiences.
- Equipping farmers with ‘farming as a business (FaaB)’ skills spearheaded
Building the capacity of farmers to cater for the nutrition requirements of households especially focusing on women and children the success factors of my project will be measured through grown margin and net profit of the farming and improvement of living standard of the small household with crop-livestock and fish integrated farming.
Budget
| Item | Amount (USD) | |
| 1 | Establishment of demonstrations in pilot
sites (field materials) and farmer-led learning platforms |
2,000 |
| 2 | Workshop and hands-on practices | 1,000 |
| 3 | Equipment hire (excavators, compactors) | 1,000 |
| 4 | Office supplies (stationery, IT supplies,
communications, etc.) for project coordination unit |
500 |
| 5 | Monitoring and evaluation of the impact on the value chain study | 500 |
| Total | 5,000 | |
Time frame
| Activities | Tranches | ||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Launch of project | |||
| Participatory identification of pilot sites in
Nyagatare. |
|||
| Establishment of demonstrations units | |||
| Establishment of farmer-led learning
Platforms |
|||
| Workshop and hand-on practices (Equipping farmers with FaaB skills, building capacity of farmers on nutrition.) | |||
| Documentation of skills, knowledge and lessons learned and report writing | |||
| Final workshop and closure of project, celebration of the success and publication of the paper | |||
Blogpost and picture submitted by Thomas Simbankabo (Rwanda): mailto:simbankabot@yahoo.fr
The content, structure and grammar are at the discretion of the author only.
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Very interesting proposal, more food in Africa and increase in employment rate of African youths.
Its really nice because it will reduce importation of food and reduce cost of food to make life easy for the poor.
Good step… Exactly what African youths need to develop our livelihood & economy. #Sharp 😉
Dear Thomas, I have tried to read your proposal and I found being so important as you are much interested in Aquaculture.
Implementing/Investing in the Aquaculture sector is of importance because, It will help the country to achieve its vision set for the year 2020 where it will need One hundred and Twelve thousand tons just to attain the average Sub Sahara per capita consumption of six point six kilogram per person per year and Two Hundred Sixty-Five metric tons to reach the global average of Sixteen point six due to the fact that the level of per capita fish consumption in Rwanda estimated at One point Five kilogram is the lowest in East Africa and falls far below the Sub Sahara Africa and global level estimated at Six point Seven and Sixteen point six kilogram respectively.
However, to achieve this, there will be need to raise farmers’ awareness about how to conserve the ecosystems they harvest from and this once adopted makes the Rwandans’ harvestable aquatic systems sustainable
KEEP IT UP.
Couarge mon cher
Dear Theo,
I am very interested in your Proposal. This is very important for Rwanda as a country of an ever increasing human demography with an increased demand for food. Fish farmers in Rwanda need to be trained so to help the country to achieve its vision set for the year 2020 where it will need One hundred and Twelve thousand tons just to attain the average Sub Sahara per capita consumption of six point six kilogram per person per year and Two Hundred Sixty-Five metric tons to reach the global average of Sixteen point six due to the fact that the level of per capita fish consumption in Rwanda estimated at One point Five kilogram is the lowest in East Africa and falls far below the Sub Sahara Africa and global level estimated at Six point Seven and Sixteen point six kilogram respectively.
Count on me in case you need further help
Thank you very Muyiwa, Umukoro Aruoriwo Gracious, Harrison-Awofala.O and Mmapendo for you appreciations to my project proposal
God bless you all !
Dear Theo,I don’t know if the competition is still on but I believe the project though it needs some more technical advise and research it is very interesting and deserve to be funded.The question is how are u planning to sustain your operwtions and that should be included too and may raise the quality of your project. Besides,Keep up!
Waith my respect,
Souvenir.