Minya, Egypt - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR), and the non-governmental organization “Life Vision” have implemented Farmer Field School (FFS) sessions in the villages of Bani Ubaid and the Nasr facility in Al-Minya governorate.

The sessions are implemented once a week, using FAO’s methodology, with the objective of improving sugar beet yield and applying good management of irrigation water by adopting modern methods in agricultural treatments, fertilization methods and the ability to combat pests and weeds, thus reducing the possible damage to the crop and the possibility of finding solutions without affecting the environment.

All the sessions include theoretical and practical knowledge transfer, but depend mainly on the practical experience in the observation field, which is compared with a comparison field of the same crop. During each session, the women conduct a quick environmental analysis in the comparison field and present the findings with their recommendations including recommendations from the results acquired from their use of the moisture meter device. This device supports women in identifying the amount of water used in the field, and determine the excess quantity and the amount of water required for irrigation in case it is dry.

Up until now, the women farmers attending the FFS’s have benefitted from the following:

• Adopted the application of environmental analysis and ability to apply in their own field, which helped them determine the problem, the type of disease, and the speed of finding a solution before an outbreak occurs;
• Ability to use the moisture meter to determine the water requirements of the soil and avoid problems related to the method of irrigation and the amount of water used, such as root rot, leaf yellowing, etc.;
• Ability to determine the type of injury or infection and how to eliminate it;
• Ability to determine the type and quantity of fertilizer required, timing, and reducing chemical use after a certain period and replacing it with other elements useful for the crop;
• Ability to control rodents and pests without harming the crop.

These sessions have contributed to enabling women farmers to improve crop productivity, in addition to having a positive psychological impact on them; because of their sense of value in their roles in society, through the dissemination of information and the acquisition of appropriate life experiences.

These activities are implemented by FAO under the regional project “Implementing the 2030 Agenda for water efficiency/productivity and water sustainability in NENA countries”. This project is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).