Under a shade in Cyanika Sector, Nyamagabe District, members of the Vision Group in Koi Kwi cooperative check mushroom-growing tubes, one after another, as they prepare them for production.

The 44-member cooperative has turned mushroom growing into a source of both food and income, a change that began after members were introduced to the activity through the Second Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Food Security Project (SAIP II).

Funded by the World Bank and implemented by the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), SAIP II is helping vulnerable households improve nutrition by increasing access to diverse and nutritious foods while promoting better feeding practices.

The project, which operates in 20 districts, provides support such as vegetables, fruits, biofortified crops, poultry and mushroom-growing materials. It also trains households to prepare balanced meals and produce nutritious food at home.

"When SAIP started providing mushroom tubes to beneficiaries to help fight malnutrition, we approached our agronomist, who connected us with SAIP,” said Martha Imanishimwe, the cooperative leader.

Members were trained to make mushroom-growing tubes and received support to acquire the equipment they needed. They later invested their own money to expand the activity.

Each member contributed Rwf100,000, raising about Rwf4 million. The money was used to buy cotton, sawdust, water, firewood and other materials needed to make the tubes.

The investment soon began to pay off.

SAIP II provided the cooperative with a ready market, allowing members to sell their mushroom-growing tubes to the project.

"We took the mushroom tubes to SAIP, and they paid us. From the Rwf4 million we invested, we made a profit of about Rwf2.8 million,” Imanishimwe said.

The cooperative initially supplied about 13,500 tubes to SAIP II. It can now produce about 12,000 tubes a month, she said.

The benefits have also reached individual households.

At her home, 48-year-old Veline Mukanzeyimana keeps 30 mushroom tubes. She harvests at least five kilogrammes of mushrooms a week, keeping some for her family and selling the rest.

"I have 30 mushroom tubes at home. Every week, I can harvest at least five kilograms. Through the income, I managed to buy a goat for Rwf40,000, pay school fees for my children and provide my family with a balanced meal, including mushroom sauce,” she said.

Her experience illustrates how the intervention is linking nutrition with household income. Families can consume part of what they produce while selling the surplus to meet other needs.

That approach is central to SAIP II's nutrition work in Nyamagabe, Gisagara and Ngororero, three districts selected because of their high levels of malnutrition.

The project targets pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children under five. Households receive laying chickens, mushroom-growing tubes, iron-biofortified beans, vegetable seeds and orange-fleshed sweet potato vines. They are also trained on balanced diets and ways to prevent malnutrition.

Evode Imanimurinde, a nutrition specialist with SAIP II, said assessments show improvements in household food consumption among people reached by the project.

"When we looked at the food consumption score from the assessment we conducted, we found that it was higher among people reached by the project compared with those who were not reached. Meals per day also increased from 1.7 to 2.4,” he said.

In Ngororero, poultry is providing another source of nutritious food.

SAIP II has distributed 11,700 laying chickens to 2,925 households. Each household received four chickens, along with feed, a chicken house, feeders and drinkers.

But providing nutritious food is only part of the challenge. Families also need the knowledge to turn the food available to them into balanced meals.

Benjamine Mukunduhirwe, the vice mayor in charge of social affairs in Ngororero, said the project has helped communities understand the importance of combining different foods.

"Together with SAIP, we put residents into groups and trained them on what a balanced diet is. This knowledge has helped change their mindset,” she said.

The district has recorded a decline in stunting among children under five, from 50.5 per cent in 2020 to 35.8 per cent, according to Mukunduhirwe.

She said better access to food can also affect other aspects of household welfare.

"When a household has food, it is not only about having something to eat. When there is no food security, there can be conflicts, school dropouts and other problems,” she said.

Mukunduhirwe added that Ngororero's poverty rate fell from 47.8 per cent in 2018 to 30.2 per cent, while the number of children who had dropped out of school fell from about 5,000 to 300.

In Nyamagabe, the nutrition lessons are also reaching children before they enter primary school.

SAIP II has taken the intervention into schools and Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, where children learn about nutritious food while parents are shown how to prepare balanced meals at home.

The project has distributed 15,700 laying hens to 3,925 households and 47,100 mushroom-growing tubes to the same households. Another 20,850 mushroom tubes have been provided to 417 ECD centres.

It has also provided 1.2 million orange-fleshed sweet potato cuttings to 600 households, established 100 model kitchen gardens at 87 ECD centres and provided nutritional supplements to 100 young children experiencing poor nutritional status.

Eight village cooking groups have also been supported to teach parents how to prepare balanced meals.

Agnes Uwamariya, Nyamagabe vice mayor in charge of social affairs, said schools began growing mushrooms after seeing the benefits of the intervention.

"After we saw the benefits of mushroom growing and consumption following SAIP interventions, we urged all schools to start growing mushrooms in their gardens. This is the third year of implementation, and it has contributed to improving nutritious food consumption at schools,” she said.

Data from the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey shows that stunting among children under five in Nyamagabe fell from 33.6 per cent in 2020 to 29.4 per cent in 2025.

Across Nyamagabe, Gisagara and Ngororero, SAIP II has distributed 173,034 mushroom-growing tubes to 8,907 households since the programme began in 2024. Additional tubes have also been provided to ECD centres.

The project says each tube can produce between half a kilogramme and one kilogramme of mushrooms per harvest, with eight to 10 harvests possible over four to five months.

Gisagara has received similar support.

SAIP II has distributed 10,800 laying hens to 2,700 households, with each household receiving four chickens, a poultry cage, feed, a drinker and a feeder.

The project has also provided 32,160 mushroom-growing tubes to 2,146 households, four tonnes of beans to about 600 households, 400,000 sweet potato cuttings to 600 households and vegetable seeds to 1,000 households.

Some families are now expanding their chicken flocks and earning income from poultry, adding an economic benefit to the nutrition intervention.

Gisagara Mayor Jerome Rutaburingoga said the project has also encouraged residents to work together to address malnutrition.

"SAIP II helped residents understand the importance of working together and learning together about addressing malnutrition,” he said.

The growing poultry activity, however, has brought a new challenge: access to animal feed.

The district is working with partners, including Gikonko rice factory, to establish an animal feed plant that would use rice leftovers as raw materials.

Back at Rugarama ECD centre in Kansi Sector, the focus returns to the kitchen.

As children count, read and write inside the classroom, their mothers prepare a balanced meal behind the building. The exercise shows parents how different foods can be combined to improve children's diets.

Claudine Uwiyubashye, whose child attends the centre, said the lessons have changed how she prepares meals at home.

"Before, I did not know about balanced diets. SAIP II came and trained us, and we started cooking at the village kitchen. We learned what a balanced diet is. Before that, we did not know it, and we did not give it much importance; we simply prepared whatever food we had for our children,” she said.

The lessons became especially important after her child developed malnutrition and struggled to gain weight.

"I had a child who was suffering from malnutrition because he was underweight. Before I learned how to prepare a balanced diet, I would take him for weighing and find that he had gained less than five grams in a month. After I was taught by SAIP how to prepare balanced meals, he started gaining weight, reaching about 10 grams a month.

"I started giving him eggs from the chickens, as well as bananas and papayas. I also learned how to combine foods that provide energy, build the body and protect against diseases.”

Uwiyubashye said SAIP II also gave her chickens, which she continues to keep and which now produce eggs.

In Karama Cell, Kansi Sector, Jacqueline Uwamahoro, a health worker, said the combination of nutrition education and food support is also making a difference among children under her care.

Parents are taught how to prepare balanced meals at the ECD centre, while eggs from chickens provided through SAIP II have added another source of nutritious food, she said.

The village has moved from having several children with malnutrition to having none currently under treatment, Uwamahoro said.

The progress, however, raises an important question: what happens when the project ends?

SAIP II is scheduled to close in December 2026. Officials are now encouraging beneficiaries to keep the chickens, continue mushroom production, maintain kitchen gardens and apply the nutrition lessons they have learned.

Evode Imanamurinde, in charge of nutrition at RAB/SPIU, which oversees the implementation of SAIP interventions, said many beneficiaries feel prepared to sustain the gains.

"Seventy-one per cent reported that they are confident enough to sustain the project when its implementation is phased out in December 2026. We are going to inquire what the challenges are among the remaining 29 per cent,” he said.

The goal is to leave families with more than the food and equipment they received. By continuing to produce nutritious food, earn income from surplus production and apply the nutrition lessons they have learned, beneficiaries can sustain the gains beyond the life of the project.

"We are now encouraging beneficiaries who received support from the project to continue taking care of what they received,” officials said.