Upcountry insight: Umutara should practice modern livestock farming methods

EASTERN PROVINCE When it rains in Umutara grazing grounds - the present districts of Nyagatare, Gatsibo and Kayonza - livestock farmers see their area as a blessed corridor, and they give thanks to God for increased milk production. But during the dry season blessings turn into curses because the production of milk plummets and lots of cattle die due to starvation. Recently livestock farmers were urged to conserve fodder to help enhance cattle production in the area. During last month, the consultative meeting with Nyagatare district mayor Robert Kashemeza which took place at Blue Sky Hotel, many left vowing to buy the mayor’s call, though some didn’t respond as expected. They just sat through the meeting waiting for it to end, because it is now raining heavily and the whole region has changed green, meaning the pastures are aplenty, and what call do they have to bother with conserving fodder for cattle? Umutara residents have managed to start a community university, the Umutara Polytechnic University, which promotes and supports the development of agriculture in the area. The university has got experts both in the faculty of agriculture and veterinary medicine, and the eastern provincial governor, Theoneste Mutsindashyaka, has been calling upon the community to seek advice from the university experts since the institution belongs to them. The governor has urged Umutara residents to consult the university experts from the agriculture faculty since it was put in place to bring about capacity building for sustainable livestock development to the communities. In his training manual for farmers on fodder conservation to the area livestock farmers, Prof. J.F. Mupangwa, a senior lecturer in Umutara Polytechnic University, asserted that fodder is commonly used for any form of bulk roughage feed, and it is of plant origin. These plants are grown on cultivated land and managed in a similar manner to food crops. Fodder crops are grown during the rainy season to fill the gap of high quality feed shortage for animal feeding mainly during the dry season. Mupangwa recommends that a farmer should use a combination of methods to produce a fodder bank for animals; one of them is that fodder can be conserved either as dried hay or silage, or treated crop residues. In his training manual on fodder conservation, he says a farmer can make hay from natural grasses, pasture grasses and legumes. Silage can be made from crops such as maize, sorghum or napier grass, crop residues; and over-matured natural grass can be treated with urea or urea-molasses and stored for animal feeding during the dry season. The training manual continues that most natural pasture provides most nutrients needed by cattle in Rwanda and the nutrient content of the pasture grasses changes with season. During the rainy season the young growing grasses have high nutrient content, but during the dry season the nutrient content is low and cannot allow cattle to produce lots of milk. He also advises that the dry hay can be made into hay bales using hay bales, or stored as loose hay. When baling the hay, he recommends doing it after mid-morning when the dew has evaporated. Prof. Mupangwa says that a lot grass is wasted “in other countries which have highly developed livestock farming. Farmers grow grass on large farms, where others turn it into commercial activity.” Presently in Umutara grazing area, which is commonly known as the land of milk, the government is verifying land held by senior government officials in a campaign to end land inequalities; but it is amazing that some of the livestock farms all are bushy, and milk production is very low because the breeds are still the local ones. Yet these are the people with a lot of land, and have the capacity to make their livestock farms fully productive. But there is a local farmer with only four hectares of land and only four Friesian breeds, but at the end of the day each of his Friesian cow produces over 40 litres in a day. This compels me to suggest that in Umutara the principle should be that whoever is given a livestock farm they should be compelled to sign a performance contract with local leaders promising to improve their local breeds thus increasing production from their cattle. These days livestock farming should be looked at as a source of income, not just for prestige as many Rwandese are attached to large herds of cattle. I believe that presently milk production is the basis of the existence of the dairy industry. Senior lecturers in Umutara Polytechnic say a cow is both a producing as well as reproducing unit because increased milk production can be achieved by either increasing milk production per cow or increasing herd size. Ends