The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Life Vision have started its all women Farmer Field School (FFS) activities on sugar beets in Beni Ebeid and Mansheit ElNasr villages in Minya governorate, Egypt. The main objective is to introduce Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for the selected crop in order to enhance water productivity and management, and increase crop efficiency. Furthermore, a round table discussion meeting was planned gathering FAO, Life Vision and Minya’s key representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), in order to discuss and improve the FFS implementation plan in Minya.

Using FAO’s FFS methodology, Life Vision have started applying the methodology to two different FFS’s with 18 women in Beni Ebeid village and 18 women in Mansheit ElNasr village. There are two fields in each FFS, an FAO recommended field and a traditional practices field. The sugar beet FFS’s in Minya governorate will run for 180 days, which represent the whole season for the sugar beet crop, which runs from September to May.