Milk that was delivered to processing plants went up by nearly a million litres above the targeted production due to several measures put in place, Minister of Finance Uzziel Ndagijimana has said.

As per projections, Rwanda had targeted to have 20,069,334 litres of milk delivered to processing plants in the first six months from July 2022 to January 2023. However, by the time the six months lapsed, there were, 21,066,384 liters of milk were delivered to milk processing plants.

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The development was brought to light by the Minister while presenting a revised 2022-2023 national budget to a joint parliamentary session on Wednesday, February 8.

Among the mechanism that likely led to the increase in milk production are livestock insurance programme, artificial insemination, and cattle vaccination, among others that all recorded an increment.

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25,254 cattle were insured in 2022. This, according to Ndagijimana, was part of the general increment in the livestock and crop insurance programme which also saw, 165,700 chickens and 3,233 pigs insured.

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For cows to be productive, they need to be healthy as well and according to Ndagijimana, 24,171 cows were inseminated while 10,977 calves were born.

"Cattle and other animals were vaccinated against various diseases, including 252,741 livestock were vaccinated against black quarter diseases, 88,704 livestock were vaccinated against Foot Mouth Disease; 417,930 livestock protected from Lumpy Skin Disease; and about 8,812 livestock are protected from brucellosis,” Ndagijimana told Parliament.