Forty four Rwandan farmer field school master trainers (FFS Master Trainers) yesterday graduated after completing a one-and-ahalf-year intensive field course aimed at  equipping  them with practical farming practices to help improve agriculture output in the country.

Farmer field school is a participatory extension approach in which selected farmers are trained to become facilitators. Currently, Rwanda has about 2500 FFS facilitators who work with 95,000 farmers organised in more than 3,900 groups.

Rwanda Agriculture Board (Rab) says they have been relying on international consultants to train farmer field school facilitators and having Rwandans with the requisite skills to impart to FFS facilitators will conveniently improve agriculture produce.

"A lot of money was spent on international experts…now that we have home grown mentors, it is an advantage especially because these FFS Master Trainers are members of Rab staff,” said Joseph Higiro, Rab’s National FFS coordinator.

Brian Nicholas Neza, one of the graduates, said they acquired skills that will help take farming to another level, adding that the acquired skills have started yielding fruit.

"The study, carried out on 200 farmers on the impact of FFS in potato productivity, showed that FFS farmers produced 18.8 ton/ha compared to 11.2 ton/ha produced by farmers who did not have FFS intervention,” he said.

The master trainers have a responsibility of training the FFS facilitators and ensure that farming practices are nurtured from land preparation up to crop harvesting. This includes pest and disease management, skilling and organising workers and increasing productivity.

Doreen Ingabire, another graduate, said they will use the skills to improve agriculture produce.

The Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr Geraldine Mukeshimana, said there are various initiatives that the government has put in place to increase productivity, including extension services.

"You have acquired relevant skills to foster agriculture practices, you now have a big task of training and sharing knowledge with farmers to ensure that they increase their yields,” she said.

The training programme started in March 2013 and was organised by Rab in partnership with Belgium Development Agency (BTC).