High cow prices affecting ‘Gir’inka’

After district authorities took over responsibility of implementing the One-cow-per-poor-family programme, commonly known as ‘Gir’inka’, the exercise is being affected by the high prices cow suppliers are charging.In an exclusive interview yesterday, the Director of the programme at Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB), Clarisse Ingabire, said the tendering process to get suppliers has slowed the exercise. “These suppliers are buying the cows at less than Rwf 300,000 per cow. However, it’s so unfortunate that they want to charge us about Rwf 400,000 or even more which is very expensive,” said Ingabire.“We wanted to make sure that this exercise is complete, countrywide, before end of this month, but it seems we may not hit our target”.In July, last year, the government decided to shift the programme from national to the district level, to address the procurement delays that were being experienced in the process.The exercise has so far been implemented in five districts namely, Ngororero, Bugesera, Kayonza, Burera and Gakenke.The Mayor of Bugesera District, Louis Rwagaju, said his district also faces a shortage of cows.“The Agriculture Ministry recommends that cows must be bought within the district so as to enable easy environmental adaptation. However, we discussed and agreed that due to the shortage, we can even buy them in Uganda,” Rwagaju said.He explained that even those farmers with cows are not ready to sell them to the district. “In partnership with other development partners, we intend to give out 2000 cows this year,” he said.

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High cow prices affecting ‘Gir’inka’