Livestock farming in Rwanda

1Why this matters

Cattle have long held a special place in Rwandan culture: a cow is a gift of friendship, and the long-horned Inyambo are admired at ceremonies. Today livestock also supply milk for schools and towns, manure for exhausted soils and income for poor families. Since 2006, the Girinka ("may you have a cow") programme has given cows to poor households. By 2018 it had distributed 341,065 of them.

2Animals kept

Cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, poultry (chickens) and rabbits, with bees kept for honey. Numbers vary by region: cattle are most numerous on the grasslands of the east, while goats, pigs and poultry are kept everywhere.

3Traditional livestock systems

• Tethering: an animal is tied to a peg or tree with a rope and moved to fresh grass from time to time. It is common for goats and single cows on small farms. It uses roadside and field-edge grass, but the animal eats little and needs watching.
• Sedentary pastoralism: herders live in permanent homes and graze their herds on nearby natural pasture, returning them to a kraal at night. It was traditional in the east. Herds are large, but milk yields per cow are low and overgrazing is a risk.
• Free-range grazing: animals wander on communal land, which damages crops and spreads disease. It is now discouraged.

4Modern livestock systems

• Ranching: large fenced farms where herds graze on managed pasture, with water points, paddocks and veterinary care. It is found mainly in the Eastern Province (Nyagatare, Kayonza).
• Dairy farming: keeping improved breeds, such as Friesian and Jersey crosses, for milk. Milk goes to collection centres and processing plants, which turn it into packed milk, yoghurt and cheese.
• Beef farming: raising cattle for meat, often fattened on pasture or feed.
• Zero grazing: the animal is kept in a shed and fed cut fodder (such as Napier grass) and water. It is encouraged in densely populated areas.

Worked example: the value of zero grazing

A local cow on free range gives about 3 litres of milk a day; an improved cow under zero grazing gives about 15 litres. Over 300 milking days, how much more milk does the improved cow give, and what is it worth at 300 Frw per litre?

1. Local cow: 3 × 300 = 900 litres. Improved cow: 15 × 300 = 4,500 litres.
2. Extra milk: 4,500 − 900 = 3,600 litres, five times as much in total.
3. Extra value: 3,600 × 300 = 1,080,000 Frw a year.

The figures are illustrative. Zero grazing also collects all the manure for the fields and uses no grazing land, which matters where land is scarce. Its costs are labour to cut fodder, a shed, and veterinary care for delicate breeds.

Practice