Lawmakers have called on the government to consider setting up a liquid nitrogen plant for cattle artificial insemination in each of the provinces of the country to ease access for livestock farmers.

The call follows reports that when the only liquid nitrogen plant based in Rubirizi, Kigali broke down for about six months – from April 28 to October 11, 2016 – it resulted in shortage of semen for artificial insemination because there was no back up.

Liquid nitrogen is very low temperature-liquefied nitrogen used for safe semen and embryos or biological tissue storage among other functions.

The liquid nitrogen machine, which was bought from the Netherlands in 2009 at a cost of about Rwf500 million, produces about 8,500 litres of liquid nitrogen per month against the current national demand of 12,000 litres.

Currently, senators said, artificial insemination conception rate is at 30 per cent in the country, still very low compared to about 65 per cent in developed countries.

The average conception rate in Rwanda is between 39 and 40 per cent, according to figures from Rwanda Council of Veterinary Doctors.

Liquid nitrogen is safe at minus 196 degrees.

Senators said temperature change owing to long distance covered from Kigali to remote areas in the country can adversely affect the semen efficacy and contribute to cow’s conception failure.

Another factor for which legislators blamed low conception rate is lack of required skills on the part of some veterinarians.

Senator Evariste Bizimana said that it was not convenient to travel from Rusizi District to collect semen in Kigali.

Normally, it takes six hours to drive from Kigali to Rusizi.

"Driving from Rusizi to Kigali to pick semen to supply to dairy farmers has many risks, including delay and damage of the liquid nitrogen-conserved semen,” he said.

Senator Chrysologue Karangwa noted that taking liquid nitrogen and semen in provincial zones will ensure efficient provision of insemination services to cow breeders and increase conception rate.

The Director of Genetic Improvement at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), Félicien Shumbusho, said the government is in the procurement process for another machine expected to be available in the country this year.

Shumbusho said intensive and long-term training was needed because these types of machines use sophisticated technology.

Dr Alphonse Nshimiyimana, the Executive Secretary of Rwanda Council of Veterinary Doctors, told The New Times that the liquid nitrogen is key to developing artificial insemination as its availability is prerequisite for proper semen and biological tissue conservation.

"Decentralisation of artificial insemination services is laudable. Technically, having one machine is dangerous. If it is damaged, everything comes to a standstill, which is different from when they are two, three or four machines,” he said.

He, however, noted that the machines in the provinces should be of lower production capacity than the one in Kigali because it is expensive.

The president of Rwanda Dairy Farmers’ Cooperatives Federation, Gahiga Gashumba, told The New Times that there is need for timely provision of artificial insemination services to farmers’ cows.

He expressed concern that sometimes veterinarians’ delay to reach farmers mainly in remote areas, which results into conception failure because they arrive when the cow’s heat period was over.

He cited lack of reliable means of transport such as motorcycle, as one of the main cause for delays.

"The current arrangement where all the veterinarians in the country have to go to Kigali for the semen is not efficient,” he said.

On skills development, RAB’s Shumbusho said that, as of December 2016, about 800 vets had trained in artificial insemination with more set to be trained.

On the other hand, Nshimiyimana said the Rwanda Council of Veterinary Doctors has, so far, through partnership with development actors, also trained over 120 inseminators.

He said the council is looking for ways to partner with financial institutions to lend money to inseminators to buy motorcycles to ease transport.

Inconsistency in prices

Prices for semen range from Rwf500 (for normal semen) to Rwf22,000 for different categories of super bull semen and sexed semen which offer the farmer 93 per cent of likelihood for their cow to give birth to a female calf.

Increasing demand

Inseminated cows were 33,459 in 2009-2010 while in 2015-2016 artificially inseminated cows increased to 72,386 cows, according to Shumbusho.

Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources show that there is a cattle population of about 1.4 million in the country, of which 54 per cent are cross breeds, 40 per cent locally bred, and 6 per cent pure breeds.

Milk production in Rwanda, the figures show, increased from about 7,000 tonnes in 1994 to over 710,000 tonnes currently, with more than 90 per cent of that milk coming from cross and pure breeds.

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