The one cow per household being given to poor Rwandese is not only improving livelihoods but also contributing to the country’s agricultural growth.

Some of the families who benefited from the government initiative are not only producing milk and biogas from the cow dung but also generating manure, which they use as fertilisers to increase farm yields.

Families consume the milk produced and excess is sold to a private creamery in Gatuna, along the Rwanda/Uganda border.

A team from the World Future Council that visited the one cow per household project at Kavisa Village in Gichumbi District last week were elated by the achievements of the programme.

Each of the 43 poor families at Kavisa in Nyamiaga Cell, Rabaya Sector were given one dairy cow by the government, as a way of encouraging dairy farming and improve agricultural production in the landlocked country.

READ: Rwanda: The story of a food secure nation

The agriculture sector continues to be a key catalyst for growth and poverty reduction. Last year, the sector registered a 3.2 per cent growth and contributes to 31 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the issuance of a cow per poor family was also part of the integration of livestock into smallholder farming to enhance the country’s food security.

Other initiatives are fish farming and small-ruminants development, which have all resulted in significant increases in the animal population.

In the one cow per poor family project, the households organised themselves to achieve maximum benefits from the cows, for example selling their products to targeted markets and in bulk.

To minimise expenditure on energy, the government also helped the households establish biogas projects, which they use for cooking and lighting.

The households are also engaged in rainwater harvesting for domestic consumption and irrigation.

The WFC team that visited the households comprised the organisations director, Alexandra Wandel, colleague Ansgar Kiene who is in charge of its Africa Liaison Office, consultant Ina Neuberger, and Rabaya Sector executive secretary Jerome Ngendabanga.

Mr Ngendabanga said although each poor family got one cow from the government, they needed two cows to participate in the biogas project.

“Other families outside Kavisa village are also involved in the project, which has played a key role in forest protection as it has reduced use of firewood,” Mr Ngendabanga said.

To ensure efficiency, the biogas is only used for cooking for an hour in the morning, at lunch hour and from 6pm to 9pm.

At the outskirts of Musanze Town near the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cecile Nyirabahutu is full of praise for the government initiative.

Mrs Nyirabahutu said her Twa community used to be marginalised but things had changed under President Kagame’s leadership.

“I now live in a house built by the government. I am also enjoying the benefits of a dairy cow given by the government. I can now live like other people and also help feed our country by selling milk to urban areas,” a jovial Mrs Nyirabahutu said.

A mother of seven, Mrs Nyirabahutu also makes briquettes to supplement her survival.

Briquettes are used instead of wood to help preserve Rwanda’s beautiful environment. They consist of water, paper and sawdust.

Mrs Nyirabahutu said she produces 900 briquettes every day. “However, the problem is lack of adequate markets as briquettes here are more expensive than charcoal. Many households do not also have special cooking stoves for briquettes, while others are unaware of its usage,” she said.

Under its Vision 2020 programme, which hopes to transform Rwanda into a modern middle-income industrialised country in the next eight years, it is intended that the proportion of rural households with livestock will rise from 71 per cent to 85 per cent and the main epidemic animal diseases will be eradicated.

Under the one cow programme, 501,572 households will be reached by 2012 from 3,500 households in 2006.

The application of inorganic mineral fertiliser will increase from 11 per cent to 40 per cent, and the use of improved seed will rise from 24 per cent to 37 per cent.