28 Jun 2019

Botswana and Rwanda have drafted a Memorandum of Understanding  (MoU)for collaboration in the field of agriculture to leverage on each other’s strengths specifically on the cattle and beef industry.

Botswana, with an outstanding record of beef production and quality vaccines globally, hopes to learn more from Rwanda’s crop and dairy sectors, which have contributed significantly in growing the country’s economy post-genocide. 

Rwanda on one hand has expressed keen interest in Botswana’s beef industry while looking to identify more areas of interest within the agriculture sector to add to the draft of the MoU.

Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ms Gerardine Mukeshimana highlighted during a tour of Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) on June 28 that Rwanda had expressed interest in purchasing livestock vaccines from Botswana specifically Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccines.

“Botswana has done well in FMD eradication but in Rwanda this remains our biggest challenge, which has limited us from conducting international trade of live animals and beef,” she said.

The advantage with purchasing from Botswana, Ms Mukeshimana explained would be affordable transport costs as the two countries could easily be connected through air transport via South Africa. “This means we can get our vaccines in one day, so our team is ready to work with BVI.”  

Rwanda is also looking to utilise the newly established diplomatic relations with Botswana to share notes on the expertise required for sanitation and compliance with international standards in the meat sector, which Botswana has long surpassed to be able to export to demanding markets such as the European Union.

With regards to dairy, while Rwanda’s industry is based on small scale farmers, milk production is high. “You would have a farmer with just two cows but producing 30 litres of milk daily,” noted Ms Mukeshimana. 

Milk production has even continued to grow substantially over the years despite a drop in cattle population in the East African country. 

Botswana therefore is looking to benchmark from Rwanda’s thriving dairy industry especially as Botswana’s dairy sector has almost completely collapsed.

“Naturally, we are drawn towards Rwanda’s dairy production as we believe we can still resuscitate our own dairy industry,” noted Botswana’s Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Fidelis Molao. He added that agriculture remained a critical sector in diversifying Botswana’s economy.

The minister also highlighted BVI’s impressive track record of producing globally competitive quality livestock vaccines, which were exported to more than 20 countries including the Middle East. Ends