Government will establish 70 milk collection centres that will boost the incomes of dairy farmers through access to market and value addition to dairy products, an official has said.

The Rwanda Animal Resource Development Authority (RARDA), a government agency responsible for the development of animal production says that 21 milk collection centres will be operational by July this year.

"We need to get high quality milk and farmers too need to be connected with the milk processors so they can sell more milk at higher prices, increasing their incomes and bring more economic activity to their communities,” Théogene Rutagwenda, the Director General of RARDA said in interview.

Currently, Rwanda has only 40 milk collection centres that are not sufficient enough to chill and process excess milk to meet the growing national demand for dairy products.

Rutagwenda said that equipments, including milk coolers and generators have been shipped from India.

Of the 21 milk centres 14 will be based in the Eastern Province, one in Kigali city, two in the Northern while four will be established in the southern and western province.

Rutagwenda said that each collection centre an estimated  Rwf50m which will be financed through the Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) loan of up to 60 percent and a government grant of 20 percent as well as farmer’s equity investment of 20 percent.

Dairy farmers will also get technical support to improve milk production and maintain consistent quality from RARDA and Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA).

The two government institutions helped dairy farmer to arrange themselves in networks which will also be strengthened in order to restore the dairy value chain.

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