DAIRY FARMER IN RWANDA 

 “Send a Cow” is a charity in the UK, similar to Heifer International, which after the genocide donated a cow to poor families in Rwanda, with the understanding that the recipient will give the first female offspring to someone in their community. In the case that we visited, the farmer doesn’t own farmland for grazing. Rather the animal is fed grass and other vegetation in a “zero grazing” environment.

Opportunity International is now walking along side these fledgling farmers to loan them additional money to expand their enterprises and make them more income generating.

One of the farmers we visited was a woman, Joseline, who is also a member of “The Association of Widows of Genocide.” The cow she received four years ago was worth about $600 because it was pregnant when she received it. Not only did Joseline give away the firstborn, but also the second calf a year later. She now has two other calves, one 16 months old and the other 4 months. Part of the program with “Send a Cow” is that they hire a local veterinarian who provides the insemination as well as shots and other needed services and advice.

The benefit to the farmer is daily income from the sale of milk, nutrition for her own family, manure for her other crops, and one calf per year that she can milk or sell. She does all this off of one acre of land where she lives and keeps the animals, plus a second plot one mile she leases to grow “elephant grass” for fodder.

Every day Joseline and her children make several one-mile trips on a bicycle to haul about 20 gallons of water to feed the animal. Her cow produces about 13 quarts of milk per day, half of which she feeds to the calf, and then splits the other half between her family’s consumption and selling to individuals and little restaurants in her community. At 50 cents per quart, for her labor she nets only about $2 per day. But she has new hope, knowing that the calf will soon be weaned, resulting in an increase of $3 per day—plus the other two will soon be producing milk of their own.

As impressed as we were by this first cow farmer, later that day we visited Etienne, who had won several awards for his ingenuity and effective farming techniques. He is what’s known as a lead farmer, in that he has been identified as a role model for others in the area. He too had been the beneficiary of “Send a Cow” and was being trained by them. Not only does he pass along the first offspring, but he trains others in his area on how to run a profitable small farm.

Etienne now has four grown cows, the best of which produces five gallons of milk per day. But dairy farming was only the beginning of his resourcefulness. He has created a gutter system on his roof that collects rain water in a large cistern so he rarely has to haul water manually.

At the back of his 2 ½ acres plot where his family lives and they keep the cattle, Etienne has constructed a trough and basin that collects the cow patties and urine. After blending the two together with a large pole, he channels the mixture into a large sealed underground tank where the released methane gas is captured. The gas then travels through a buried pipe and up into their kitchen. He proudly demonstrated how the gas is used to fuel the stove-top burner and an overhead gas lantern.

Once the mixture has fermented, and the gas removed, a trap is opened, releasing the residue into a stream that then flows into his field, fertilizing his crops. Needless to say, we were all amazed by his ingenuity and execution.

Opportunity is continually on the lookout for innovations like this that through micro loans can become replicated and sustainable. We believe we’ve found an enterprise worth funding. By tweaking our model slightly, for an investment of only a few hundred dollars we can launch small dairy businesses across Africa, empowering the farmers and helping all those they serve in the process.

Mark Lutz, Sr. VP, Global Philanthropy