The 120 cows donated to farmers in Rwanda by the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki have increased to 256 as of Wednesday.

The cows were donated to Rwandans during their study tour in Nairobi in 2005 to boost milk production, quality of beef produced in Rwanda and household incomes.

Dr Theogéne Rutangwenda, the director general Rwanda Animal Resource Development Authority (RARDA) said the first female exotic breed of 88 cows multiplied to 46 females and 42 males.

During the give away of some cows to farmers in Nyagatare District in Eastern Province, Rutangwenda said some exotic cows have been crossbred with local Ankole ones. The move is to raise diseases resistant and fast growing breeds.

Farmers have been trained on how to inseminate, so as to have more crossbreeds.   On average, one exotic breed gives 18 litres of milk daily which is enough to serve the intended purpose.

RARDA has three types of cows; local, exotic breed and hybrid which are basically used to help experiment how best to increase their productive and then taught to the farmers in the country.
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