Model Farms

Today I visited 2 of our farm partners - these are families who are trying to develop healthy, environmentally friendly family farms. Farm is a term used loosely here - these families have a modest house, with their animals in the back yard.

The first farm was the home of Justice, a man who was warden of 2 national parks here in Rwanda for years and now works for a conservation NGO. He has a lovely home just outside the city center of Ruhengeri, with 2 Jersey cows in the backyard. The first he got from Heifer International 5 years ago. She's given him 3 calves and lots of milk. One of her calves is the second cow, and both are pregnant at the moment. John Huston, our livestock specialist, has helped Justice with feeding and deworming strategies. He's also helped Justice install a bio-gas unit next to the cow enclosure. This unit will be filled with cow manure and urine (and waste from the house), allow it to sit in a tank and produce methane, which is vented into a pipe that powers the gas stove in his house. The unit is not finished yet, but the tank of waste is almost ready to vent to the pipe. The start up cost was pretty steep in Rwandan terms but Justice figures he will break even in 3 years, then begin to save money. In addition, his family will no longer use charcoal, which is very expensive, and very, very bad for the environment. There is a HUGE illegal charcoal industry in DRC (Congo) - trees are cut in the "protected" forests and made into charcoal in kilns, then transported illegally to Rwanda, Uganda, other parts of DRC... so the bio-gas unit will decrease dependency on charcoal. We are encouraging all of our partner farms to consider installing a bio-gas system. Justice also has a rain catchment system that is almost ready for use. He has a series of pipes on his roof designed to catch the rain water efficiently and run into large tanks. That water will be used to water livestock, wash clothes, flush the toilet, etc. We are working on developing a rain catchment system at MGVP headquarters. Here are some pictures of Justice's house and cows. The cows are always confined because Rwanda has a no grazing policy in order to protect everyone's crops. It also keeps cows off the roads!


Here are John and Justice checking out his almost finished biogas unit, and the back of Justice's nice house.


We left Justice to go visit the home of a woman who has just purchased her first cow - a cross breed, who is supposed to be pregnant. John and I will palpate her to determine pregnancy status. This farm is a good 20 minute drive over VERY bumpy lava stone road, into a neighborhood that rarely sees cars, let along white people. We were immediately surrounded by a few women and dozens of children who were curious, and funny, and for the most part sweet (some of the older boys were a little naughty - they really, really wanted to ride on the truck...). This cow looks very healthy, and turns out that she is indeed pregnant! This is very good news for her owner. She'll make good money on the calf, and will get several months of milk. Here are some pictures of the cow, John palpating her, the house where she and some goats and a small family stay at night, and the kids. One little girl was knitting - she was very proud when I asked to take her picture.




This is how the majority of people live here in and around Ruhengeri. I am honored to be welcomed into their homes.