Abstract

Rwanda is implementing the self-sustaining extension system through Farmer Field Schools (FFS) and Farmer Promoters (FP) approaches. The objective of this paper was to find out the impact of self-sustaining extension system in order to help stakeholders to improve its current implementation. The methodology includes a desk review of reports, face to face interview with 60 participants and 5 focus group discussions between February and May 2016. It also includes the interview of 400 trained farmers and 400 non-trained farmers.  It was found that 92% of the trained FFS facilitators and 62% of the farmer promoters were very active in extension services. It was also found that for beans, the highest average yield was 1.2 t/ha for non-trained farmers, 1.5 t/ha for FFS farmers, 1.3 t/ha for FP farmers and the average yield of all the farmers was worked out to be 1.4 t/ha. It was found that FFS trained farmers produce 37.5% more than non-trained farmers while farmers trained by Farmer Promoters produce 10.8% more than non-trained farmers. In general, 37.8% of farmers apply Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) among the non-trained farmers, 73% of FFS farmers use the GAP and 68.3% of the FP farmers adopt the GAPs. It was found that 20% of the FFS group activities are involved in various income generating activities compared to non-trained farmers (10%). It is concluded that the implementation of self-sustaining agricultural extension system in Rwanda has a strong impact in agricultural development through motivation and increased trainings of farmer promoters.

Key words:  Impact, implementation, self-sustaining extension.