KIGALI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has made strides in rebuilding the livestock sector since 1994, when an estimated 80 percent of the cattle were decimated, Rwandan agriculture minister said Thursday.
The cattle population that numbered 600,000 before 1994 was reduced sharply to 172,000.
Thanks to government interventions such as the cattle stocking program "one cow per family" the cattle population has climbed to 1.3 million, said Geraldine Mukeshimana, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, at a meeting on cattle breeding in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda.
Milk production in the central African country has significantly increased from 50,000 tonnes in the year of 2 000 to 816,000 tonnes in 2018, said Mukeshimana.
She, however, said the current 106 milk collection centers owned by farmer cooperatives are not enough to collect all the milk produced in the countryside, which is a potential area for further investment.
