Story
It takes longer, the groups have to be smaller, and it settles the question of who knows what. A note on how we run field sessions.
Visitors sometimes ask why our staff are in the soil at a training rather than standing at the front of it. The short answer is that it works better.
A farmer who watches a demonstration can describe ridging. A farmer who has opened a furrow to the right depth, with their own hoe, on their own slope, can do it. Only one of those changes what happens on their plot.
Most people in the group have farmed for longer than we have. Working alongside them makes that obvious and makes the session a conversation rather than a lecture.
Practices that are awkward in the field get found out in the first hour. That has changed our curriculum more than once.
Sessions take longer and groups have to be smaller. We think it is the right trade.
Keep reading
Five things we got wrong at the start, and what we changed. Attendance, contact hours, the questions farmers actually ask, and why every participant now leaves with a record sheet.
An organisation in West Lafayette, Indiana, joins our community wellbeing work. What we agreed, and what we committed to report back.
Signed at the Taba campus in Butare. The agreement covers digital agriculture, joint research and grant writing, and it brings students into our field teams.
Newsletter
A short email every month or so. Training reports, harvest results, and what we learned along the way. No noise.
