Amplifying the role of men in Regenerative Agriculture

Ensuring nutrition in the community through engaging men in regenerative Agriculture. In Rwanda, most families depend on small-scale farming from their own gardens at home. For some of the homes though, the idea of a home garden is only a dream left to be achieved. But for the fathers or men living in Gasabo District whose wives are enrolled for Gardens For Health’s Maternal Nutrition Program (MNP), their story is a different one.

These fathers have now understood their role in supporting their spouses during the time when they are pregnant. The training families receive from Gardens For Health (GHI) have been intentional at including fathers to increase their sustainability impact for families.

From our training, these men receive key messages on agriculture, health, and nutrition with a motive of improving their families’ nutrition. Men’s engagement starts right from participating in their wives’ graduation ceremony, after completing the MNP program, to taking care of their wives during pregnancy. They are also trained on regenerative agriculture skills to improve families’ nutrition and health, reverse climate change and improve the quality of soil so they can make the most out of their agricultural produce. During the training, all fathers learn different techniques like proper spacing of vegetables in their gardens, planting along lines to allow for convenience during weeding, choosing which vegetables can be planted together and those that cannot be mixed, making pesticides, and making compost manure using organic farm materials like tree branches, leaves which is more effective for vegetable farming.

Kubwimana Remy, a resident of Kidashya cell in Gasabo District is a farmer and one of the fathers that went through our training program to learn how to best support his expecting wife through the pregnancy until she safely delivers her baby. According to him, many of the fathers tend to get too busy with other responsibilities that they forget to support their wives during the time they are carrying their babies.

“This training is exactly what I needed. I used to get home and order my wife to do almost everything; cooking, cleaning, even when she was pregnant. But now I know better, I sometimes take over some chores so that she can get more rest - then we are also likely to get a healthy baby” - Innocent, one of the fathers says.

Besides supporting their wives at home, when men take initiative to provide for their families, there are more benefits to the family including conflict prevention and maintaining harmony between all members of the family.

Fathers at Kayanga Health Centre in Gasabo District during one of the trainings

The engagement of fathers or men in our programming is one of the unique approaches GHI is using to ensure sustainable progress of the families we support and encourage families to work together in the fight against malnutrition. With support from Regenerosity, we have impacted families in two sectors through the engagement of men.