Though Rwamagana was among the districts in eastern province of Rwanda affected by the Rift Valley Fever (RVF) outbreak in the region, farmer-to-farmer awareness campaigns reduced losses and helped them cope with the disease.
Rwamagana, an area neighboring Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, where most of the local people are engaged in commercial activities rather than agricultural and breeding activities; the farmers and breeders are small-scale compared to other areas of the eastern province.
During the RVF outbreak, local authorities urged farmers to prevent and control the disease by vaccinating their animals, feeding them well to build immunity, and spraying them regularly with appropriate chemicals.
Through the livestock farmers field school (LFFS)program, the local government trained the most influential livestock farmers for them to train and mobilize their fellows. The program is based on cell level, and one advisor is in charge of a certain number of fellows, which varies from one cell to another.
The program operates from the cell level, whereby every cell has at least an advisor selected among other livestock farmers, who is trained and whose role is to work closely with his/her fellows by advising them.
Selected among his peers based on his/her influence, skills, knowledge, dedication and willingness to help his peers, a livestock advisor trains them on how to take care of their animals. They don’t apply for this position, they are nominated by their fellow livestock farmers, and the trainings they get is provided by the government free of charge, it’s not an academic program but training from time to time by professionals from the Ministry of Agriculture and animal resources.
The livestock advisors are trained for five years and the training is carried out in stages based on the topic, some will last for two months while some will last for two weeks. They are trained on different diseases, how to treat them and how to prevent them, including feeding the animals well to raise their immunity.
Jean Paul Mutsinzi, a beneficiary of LFFS from Kigarama cell, Nzige sector, says that after training they are expected to go down to their villages to help their fellows with the skills they get from training.
According to Mutsinzi, they form groups of livestock farmers in the villages where they work. They teach the farmers what they have learned, and raise awareness about government programs in livestock sector such as immunization of animals to deal with various diseases and putting them on insurance. The teachings are delivered during cells’ weekly gatherings and some other occasional times based on the current messages.
The whole Rwamagana district has 67 trained livestock advisors who operate in 82 cells with 17,920 livestock farmers. They are not on paycheck; they just work as volunteers and get some little motivation once in a while such as bicycles and allowance when they attend training; it’s not regular though.
In addition to being mentors to their colleagues, the trainees make use of the knowledge they have gained from the training, for example, Mutsinzi now grows and multiplies reeds for livestock professionally, earning his own income and doing it as a job and business.
The RVF intensity eased
Elie Ugiraneza is a livestock farmer but also an advisor in this program from Karenge sector in Rwamagana district, he coordinate around 25 fellow livestock farmers; he had two cows both got RVF but were treated on time and recovered. He says that he was well aware of the disease and prepared in case it could reach his cattle.
“When the disease attacked my cows, I knew that I shouldn’t touch their blood so that I don’t get myself infected, and that I had to call in the veterinary as soon as I see RVF symptoms,” said Ugiraneza.
He says that he was aware of some RVF symptoms like fever, nose bleeding and lack of energy among others and so, when he saw them in his cow, he quickly contacted the veterinary who came and started to treat that cow. Soon after the second cow was affected but both cows were treated and survived the RVF.
Some of the advice given to livestock farmers in order to prevent and ease the intensity of RVF is to feed their livestock well with nutrients diet to boost their immunity, spraying insecticideat least twice a week and getting their livestock vaccinated.
In addition, if they see signs of the disease, avoid contact with the blood of a sick animal and call a veterinarian instead.
Ugiraneza confirms that in his group, those who followed the given advice nothing happened to their cattle.
RVF explained
RVF is a viral disease most commonly seen in domesticated animals in sub-Saharan Africa, such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and camels. People can get RVF through contact with blood, body fluids, or tissues of infected animals, or through bites from infected mosquitoes.
Although RVF often causes severe illness in animals, most people with RVF have either no symptoms or a mild illness with fever, weakness, back pain, and dizziness. However, a small percentage (8-10%) of people with RVF develop much more severe symptoms, including eye disease, hemorrhage (excessive bleeding), and encephalitis (swelling of the brain).
This being explained to the livestock farmers in Rwamagana, did everything possible to prevent the disease like cutting down bushes so that mosquitoes cannot hide and draining water bodies so they cannot breed.
Goreth Murekerisoni, a livestock farmer in Nsinda cell, Muhazi sector, Rwamagana district says that since they knew how to prevent the appearance of RVF, they did all they could to do so. Among her nine cows, one was affected but was treated on time and cured thanks to the advices she got from their advisors.
“I used to hear on radio about the RVF, and our local leaders used to remind us to be on guard, so I cut all bushes around my home, and I was always vigilant in case one of my cows would show the RVF symptoms,” said Murekerisoni.
She says that she feeds her cattle with the reeds planted for them and gives them enough water; their barn is also clean enough and they are sprayed many times a week as advised by .
According to Rwanda agriculture and Animal resource development Board, Rwamagana had 60 RVF cases 26 were treated and 34 died in 2022; many livestock farmers were not affected.
According to Rwamagana district animal resources officer, Dr. Jean De Dieu Niyitanga, since April to July 2022, 285, 005 cows were vaccinated. So far, there is no more RVF in the region. Moreover, in just three months, the anti-RVF operations cost around 15 million Rwandan francs.
Wilson Sekabera from Muhazi sector says that these advisors are the ones who taught them how to deal with epidemics like RVF, and taught them how to feed their livestock properly. Unfortunately his one and only cow was victim of RVF and left him cow-less.
Murekerisoni says that livestock advisors trained them on how to fight mosquitoes that are said to be spreading RVF, how to grow grass and how to feed cows properly; they also encouraged them to take livestock insurance.
Despite being able to handle the last RVF outbreak, livestock farmers in Rwamagana are still afraid that the next outbreak might not go easy on their cattle yet getting insurance is still a big challenge.
Murekerisoni says that insurance is still expensive for the low-income livestock farmer, The insurance is 5.5 percent of the value of one cow and it’s paid once per year.
“Not all variety of cattle is allowed in insurance scheme, the priority was given only to dairy cows and productive pork and chicken; and when they are sick you will have to get them treated on your account, insurance will step in only if they are dead,” she said.
Ugiraneza shares the concern, they still find insurance costs to be high for those with one or two cows, as an advisor, it is not easy to convince his fellows to insure their livestock but keeps mobilizing.
However, areas near lakes and swamps such as Rwamagana, and near the rivers of Akagera and Akanyaru where there are mosquitoes, it is easy for animals to be infected with RVF.
