Marius Ndayegamiye works as a Project Facilitator at Ripple Effect. He works closely with the communities participating in our ‘Climate Resilient and Thriving Smallholder Farmers’ project in Burundi. He devotes himself everyday to people in Burundi with life-changing training and support.
Ensuring our field work aligns with programme objectives
Our project facilitators work directly with project participants to implement our programme activities. This includes everything from training to installation of infrastructure, crop and livestock management and progress monitoring.
Our ‘Climate Resilient and Thriving Smallholder Farmers’ project will run until June 2026. Project facilitators, like Marius, will work with over 1,000 smallholder farmers in rural Burundi to increase their incomes and empower them to thrive in the face of climate related challenges. And his work doesn’t stop there – for every farmer Marius trains, another three at least will benefit through shared learning.
There are two main outcomes we are aiming to achieve with this project: to work with farmers in building healthy farm systems that are resilient to changing weather patterns, and to support farmers in increasing their income by generating surplus produce in harvests.
Marius and all our project facilitators are at the centre of our project implementation – their work is what helps us achieve our programme objectives.
What a typical workday looks like for Marius
Marius’ day typically starts at 8am when he sets off to reach a participant’s farm. He greets the farmers, and they have a meeting in which they discuss the programme’s activities and set a plan to achieve priority tasks. This meeting also offers an opportunity for participants to share good news (such as agricultural progress or production quantities) and/or request further support.
Following the morning meeting, Marius inspects the farmer’s field, checking that the land and crops are healthy and progressing as expected. The participant will likely accompany him, and Marius will be able to answer any questions they may have. Sometimes, he will identify an issue or need for further work to allow the land and crops to remain healthy, so he will discuss with the farmer on what solution to implement and they will get to work. Often, the solution would be to protect the field with agroforestry techniques.
After the field inspection and work, Marius will gather with the farmers at their home, and they will discuss what learnings they have applied, such as vegetable gardening, hygiene and land improvement. Marus will congratulate achievements and provide reminders on anything missed.
Once that discussion is concluded, Marius and the farmers will visit the farm’s livestock and check their welfare. Farmers start by telling him about progress and challenges faced. When a challenge relates to livestock disease, Marius will offer suggestions as to which treatment to apply, and how biosecurity can be improved to avoid further disease.
The rest of Marius’ day will depend on the season. At this time of year, Marius will water tree nurseries, allowing them to grow healthily before the tree planting season (starting 1st December in Burundi).
The challenges faced by farming communities in Burundi
Aside from issues that Marius comes across daily on the field, there are bigger challenges that he needs to face, both for himself and the communities he works with: fuel shortages and the impacts of climate change.
In Burundi this year, there has been a shortage of fuel, where a whole month can pass without any availability of fuel. “When there’s a fuel shortage, I need to notify farmers and walk by foot to groups within 15km of my home. Beyond this distance, I use a motorcycle and choose a place which may be at a central distance from group locations” says Marius when telling us how he adapts to this challenge.
But it’s more than just fuel shortage that’s posed risk to Marius’s ability to help farmers grow healthy crops. Burundi has experienced extreme climate conditions this past year, particularly with regards to heavy rainfall. On the effects of climate change, Marius comments: “Nowadays, we’re facing big variations of seasons. The rain season was supposed to continue until June, but unfortunately it stopped in the beginning of May. This rain shortage caused reduced crop growth, finally resulting in crops being destroyed in the sunny season as farmers were unable to give them enough water”.
Ripple Effect employs a range of methods to respond to the challenge of changing weather patterns like the one experienced in Burundi this past year. We can’t control the impacts of the climate crisis – but we can support smallholder farmers in becoming more climate-resilient.
Marius reports that in Burundi “we’re promoting small scale irrigation, using water pumps and bucket irrigation systems where there is water available. We are also using pipe irrigation where there are water sources and suitable topography”. In addition to installing water harvesting and irrigation equipment to make water available during the dry season, our projects also select climate-resilient seeds such as a bio-fortified variety of sweet potato, to minimize the risk of crop-loss from lack of water.
As Marius points out, these practices have a significant impact on the farmers’ income: “this allows farmers to produce even during the sunny season, when agriculture products are scarce and make a big profit”.
What Marius enjoys the most about his job
“I enjoy the direct interaction I have with farmers the most. The communication I have with them changes over time, as the support from Ripple Effect interventions starts bringing hope to farmers, creating a more confident and positive mindset.”
“I especially enjoy seeing the shift in mindset, sometimes with the woman of the family as the head of household, and their children becoming confident about food security, and continuing and succeeding at school.”
“It’s great to see when a project participant changes their life in less than two years of being part of the project, using local natural resources, and going beyond to have an income and keep their family fed.” – Marius Ndayegamiye, Project Facilitator based in Burundi.
We are very grateful and thankful to have such caring Project Facilitators like Marius on the Ripple Effect team, out on the field to spread the knowledge that supports smallholder farming communities in East Africa lift themselves out of poverty.
You can get involved today, whether it’s setting up a monthly donation to help us deliver more training and equipment for climate resilience, or if you want to join the Ripple Effect team you can check our current vacancies.
If you want to know more about our work in Burundi, click here.
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