The dairy sector in Rwanda plays a key role in improving nutrition and generating income mostly for rural households. Despite the Rwandan 1994 genocide that left around 80% of dairy cows decimated, the dairy sector has experienced significant growth in the past two decades through government, development organisations, and donor programs, and through the nascent vibrant public–private partnership. In this paper, we reviewed and documented the evolution of the dairy policies, programs, and regulations in Rwanda and how they have contributed to the development of the dairy sector. The policy change has impacted the provision and use of inputs and services that have shaped the sector's milk production and productivity, milk quality, and demand. The results suggest that various policy- and program-level interventions have positively contributed to the growth of the dairy sector and improved the livelihoods of low-income households. This has been achieved through increased access to inputs and services, enhanced capacities of the public and private sector to deliver services, strengthened dairy cooperatives' governance, and increased value proposition to members of various farmer groups and promotion of milk consumption. We find that some of the implemented policies and programs, such as the “Girinka” (one cow per poor family) program, Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II, and Rwanda Dairy Development Project, have resulted in improved farmer access to improved cow breeds and improved milk quality and cow productivity through enhanced health inputs and other services. While the dairy policies, programs, and regulations in Rwanda have paved the way for the development of the dairy sector and contributed to the provision and use of inputs and services, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. Accessibility and use of veterinary and artificial insemination services are limited by the quality of veterinary products, while the inadequate quality of feeds leads to low productivity of improved cow breeds. Consequently, farmers' uptake and use of inputs and services can be enhanced through a strengthened capacity of milk collection centres and health and animal feed policies that guide and control the quality of veterinary products and feeds sold in the markets.
Background Integrated vegetable–poultry production system has recently attracted attention both from the scientific and policy making communities for its potential contribution to food security as well as the opportunities it offers in improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. Despite the efforts made, its benefits and costs in heterogeneous and real-world settings are not fully understood. Despite the promising design of the vegetable–poultry production system, rather little is known of its profitability and its contribution to better living conditions of rural households in different real-world settings. The same applies regarding the knowledge on factors influencing the decision to adopt such an integrated system. Methods Using cross-sectional data collected from 250 households in Babati district of Tanzania, we employ a gross margin analysis and a logit model to evaluate the profitability and to investigate the factors influencing the decision to integrate vegetable and poultry production systems. Results We find that the integrated vegetable–poultry production system is more profitable than vegetable farming alone and the profitability increases as the poultry flock size increases. An integrating household should keep 18 birds to get significant higher profit than non-integrator. Furthermore, gender and education level of the household head, awareness of integration benefits, land owned, household size, off-farm income, and total income received by the household influence the decision to integrate vegetable and poultry. Conclusion The study strongly promotes the integration of vegetable–poultry production system and highlights the influence of gender and awareness of integration benefits on the decision to integrate vegetable and poultry. Hence, the policy implication is to empower women and provide capacity building through training and extension services such as provision of affordable and improved vegetable seeds and poultry breeds.
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