Lawmakers on the agriculture standing committee have called for more artificial insemination for livestock farmers to avoid spread of animal diseases that result from use of traditional insemination methods.

They made the call on Wednesday while visiting the Animal Resources Department of the Rwanda Agriculture Board at Rubirizi, Kicukiro District, as part of ongoing field visits to assess the progress of Girinka programme.

The MPs underlined the importance of early sensitisation of farmers and called for procurement of more equipment to fast-track the programme of artificial insemination.

MP Ignatienne Nyirarukundo, the chairperson of the agriculture committee, said the visit to the site was also triggered by previous concerns raised by livestock farmers on delays and shortage of semen supplies.

"We were told about a machine that used to store semen which broke down and veterinaries could not supply quality needed semen in time. This affected the projected production and people resorted to the traditional methods of using bulls which we fear could spread diseases,” she said.

Rwanda, in 2009, procured a Liquid Nitrogen Plant to store as more tonnes of semen as possible, but many more were needed across the country to ease access to farmers who travel to Kigali to get semen.

One machine was purchased from the Netherlands at the tune of Rwf500 million.

According to Mathias Ngarambe, an engineer at the site in Rubirizi, it had capacity to supply 10,000 litres against the demand of 9500 tonnes every month.

"When the machine broke down in April this year, the production came to a halt, we had to go all the way to the Netherlands to get spare parts to have it repaired, but there is a need for more machines since this one operates 24 hours a day which might cause repetitive glitches,” he said.

Dr Christine Kanyandekwe, the Head of Animal Resources Department at the Rwanda Agriculture Board, said government is set to acquire more machines to speed up the supply of nitrogen and semen countrywide.

"So far, we have supplied the inputs in more than 20 districts, we will have to cover them all before we start with the artificial insemination campaign,” she said.

She stated that the sensitisation is equally supposed to improve awareness on ‘mastitis’ diseases whose prevalence so far stand at 1 per cent of the entire livestock.

She warned that the disease could spread fast in the near future if nothing is done to contain it.

"Rapid tests are required and famers can do it themselves, if they have the tool kits which we will make available as soon as possible. We will provide free kits so they can make their own diagnosis and we will help those whose livestock are at risk with necessary treatment,” she added.

Lawmakers expressed some satisfaction on the Girinka project although, they said it can be expanded and be more business oriented.

"From our observations Girinka programme is in line with the expectations but we are trying to see how to improve it to impact the people on a long-term basis other than just owning a cow to provide milk for the family or supply few litres to milk collection centres,” said MP Nyirarukundo.

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