Families seeking out climate resilient crops in Rwanda

45 year-old Angelina Umimnana is a subsistence farmer living in Burera in the north of Rwanda. Angelina was forced to survive on one meal a day - sometimes nothing at all – before she switched to a climate resilient crop.

90% of Rwandans rely on hand-to-mouth subsistence farming and grow beans, the staple food of the country. But traditional agriculture in Rwanda suffers from a lack of irrigation and water storage systems.

It is estimated that 97% of farming is rain-fed which leave food supplies vulnerable to climate change. Increasingly unpredictable rainfall spoils the bean harvest, forcing people to buy food.  But increasing food prices here and all over the world means more and more are forced to go hungry.

Anne Abingeri, who works for a local NGO explains the awareness of the issue amongst farmers. ‘The people are not much aware of “climate change”, all they know and talk about is the change in weather patterns.’ These changes in the climate can have a devastating effect on people’s lives, especially if the food on your table comes from the plot of land outside your door.

Angelina took action to protect herself and her family from the increasing risk to their food supply. She attended one of the government training programmes to show communities how to diversify their food by growing mushrooms. She has now been farming mushrooms for three years and it’s had a big impact on her life.

‘It’s been great growing them,’ she says. On her small plot of land, Angelina has more than enough space to grow mushrooms as they can be grown vertically and inside houses. With their short growing cycle they can produce food after only one week and can be harvested throughout the year. ‘They don’t need manure to grow and they’re not affected by the weather,’ she adds.

Mushroom farming reduces the number of households that are dependent on traditional agriculture, and therefore, are at the mercy of climate change. It can also play a valuable role in improving nutrition by providing a valuable source of protein, vitamins, iron and calcium. A plot of land as small as one square meter - which usually only provides a few vegetables every month - can provide a family with enough mushrooms for both food and revenue.

Angelina has transformed her life from a precarious day-to-day struggle for food, to one in which she is food secure. It took 6 long years to achieve, but now she can focus on other important matters. She has extended her home, added an electricity supply and plans on selling enough of her crops to send her children to university.

Source: Tearfund