Posted on September, 1, 2016 at 09:40 am
Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr Gerardine Mukeshimana, has on August 31, 2016, officially opened the 12th African Dairy Conference and Exhibition that is taking place in the Kigali Convention Centre.
The three-day event, co-organised by the Eastern and Southern Africa Dairy Association (ESADA), Rwanda National Dairy Platform, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, has brought together more than 600 participants from across the African continent and beyond to discuss strategies to boost dairy production, quality, and trade and market access.
The event, held under theme of “African Dairy: the future begins here,” features an exhibition showcasing latest technologies, products and services in dairy industry by exhibitors drawn from around the world.
Officially opening this event, Minister Mukeshimana said that Rwanda’s agriculture sector is very grateful to the continued commitment for the development of the national and regional dairy sub-sector.
The minister said that Rwandan dairy farmers through collaboration and support by milk processors and development projects by various development partners have worked really hard to adopt technologies to deal with adverse effects of climate change as well as irregular weather patterns that the country has been experiencing over the last years.
Milk production in Rwanda increased from 50,000 MT in 2000 to 710,000 MT last year. And Rwanda’s livestock subsector – in which the dairy industry is a major component – contributes 10 per cent of agriculture’s input to the country’s GDP.
“This has not only had an impact on poverty reduction, it has also attracted investments into dairy processing, small and medium enterprises, as well as animal feeds processing plants,” said Minister Mukeshimana, noting that the increase in milk production in this country is mostly coming from smallholder farmers.
At regional and continental level, the dairy industry is a major contributor towards nutrition security, income generation as well as job creation, the minister said, adding that in Rwanda, milk increase has also seen a big number of youth in rural areas getting involved into dairy farming as well as milk trading activities.
Though some progress has been made over the years, the minister challenged key players in the dairy industry to adopt new technologies and innovations into the industry in a bid to keep improving milk production, sanity and safety, aggregation, transportation as well as value addition.
“Commercialisation and scaling up technologies generated from research centers and universities constitute cost effective and efficient ways to enhance farm and labour productivity, quality issues as well as reducing post-harvest losses,” she told the participants. “If we have to be active players into the global arena, our practices and technologies must be in harmony with required practices and standards.”
Source: Republic of Rwanda - Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI)