Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) has said that it is building an enabling environment that will see all veterinary services put under private operators.

Fabrice Ndayisenga, the Head of Department Animal Resources Research and Technology Transfer told The New Times that there are huge opportunities for veterinary doctors considering that livestock population keeps growing and that there is need for enough and quality production from it.

"There are staff in charge of animal resources at sector level and the farmers tend to rely on them for veterinary services. This one will now be focusing on one cow per family program beneficiaries who can’t afford veterinary services cost .The rest has to be done by private veterinarians,” he said.

Last week, 60 veterinary doctors who graduated from University of Rwanda/CAVM in School of Veterinary Medicine/Department of Veterinary Medicine took oath to become members of Rwanda Council of Veterinary Doctors (RCVD).

He said private veterinarians are soon going to work under the "Mandat sanitaire” Scheme.

This is an administrative act that establishes a strong link between the veterinarian and the State.

With this mandate, the veterinarian is at the service of the State and the public good for the performance of missions of general interest such as the detection of regulated animal diseases and the operations of control and eradication of these diseases.

 These missions require technical competence but also integrity and independence on the part of their executives.

Ndayisenga said that veterinary doctors have to invest their skills to leverage the livestock sector for job creation while helping to increase animal resources production.

Rwanda launched veterinary medicine at university of Rwanda six years ago and the sector is still at nascent stage.

"Most of Rwandans used to pursue veterinary medicine abroad. If we want to develop the livestock sector, we must have many professional veterinary doctors to reach out to farmers and help increase the production and quality we need,” he said.

Statistics show that goats increased to 2,844,001 in 2020 up from 1,891,612 from 1992 while the population of pigs grew by five-fold; from 244,980 pigs in 1992 to 1,441,077 pigs in 2020.

 Rwanda’s chicken population increased by 9 percent per year, from 3.5 million in 2010 to over 7.6 million.

 The number of cows rose steadily from 813,417 in 1992 to 1,449,888 in 2020.

Currently the veterinary council has registered 4,000 veterinary doctors.

"The number of veterinary doctors is still small but we have to increase both quality and quantity of professionals,” he said.

He noted that the government will also support them with needed kits to streamline their profession on the field and improve service delivery.

"They should work at cell and village level and sign contracts with farmers,” he said.

Appeal for practices at university

Jean de Dieu Bazimya, a veterinary doctor, who is a fresh graduate, said that there are limited practices at University of Rwanda which affects them when they reach the labour market.

"There is a need for a survey in the University of Rwanda and assess practical skills. For instance, in artificial insemination, there are very few kits and some students do not have access to any.

We wish to have more practical skills like students in general medicine that spend most of their time in hospitals doing practices,” he said.

Eugene Twizeyimana added that the government should also avail necessary kits and diagnostic equipment in the community close to farmers to empower veterinary doctors in improving service delivery.

Ndayisenga responded to the complaints explaining  that veterinary medicine was launched a few years ago adding that RAB will work with University of  Rwanda, education ministry and veterinary council to see how to increase the level of practices so as to make graduates for the labour market.

 He added that under a €15 million project, the government seeks to improve private veterinary service delivery where proximity private veterinarians/veterinary technicians are given packages of medicines and other livestock inputs/equipment as a start-up capital to improve service delivery.