Beef and dairy farmers in Rukungiri district have been urged to embrace artificial insemination (AI) in breeding exotic cows to scale up supply of milk and meat to meet their high demand in the area.
The call was made by Dr. Mugimba Kiziito, a facilitator from URUS during a workshop they organized to train farmers on how to enhance their farm output.
URUS is a global leader in dairy and beef cattle genetics and farm management solutions aimed at improving herd quality and productivity, and supporting local dairy farmers.
However, Artificial insemination is the process of collecting sperm cells from a male animal and manually depositing them into the reproductive tract of a female.
It is commonly used instead of natural mating in many species of animals because of the many benefits it can reap.
Addressing farmers during the training held on yesterday Wednesday 20th March 2025 at Platinum Classic Suits Buyanja, Mugimba noted that knowledge on Artificial Insemination is still low among communal farmers who still rely on natural mating to increase their herd being the reason why they decided to bring these services in Rukungiri.
He revealed that under Artificial Insemination, local breeds can be cross bred with high-quality cattle breeds like Frisian, Jersey, Ayrshire Brown, Boran, and Sahiwal among others.
Mugimba disclosed that Artificial insemination will not only boost the quality and quantity of the indigenous breeds but also increase income for the farmers since locally cross-bred animals produce more milk.
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King Kamuheirwe, now the coordinator of URUS in Rukungiri district said that the main intention of the training was to help alter farmers’ perspectives so they can use modern technologies to boost agricultural productivity.
He said that artificial insemination had not been embraced by the farmers in Rukungiri due to lack of access to liquid nitrogen and semen stating that the opening of a URUS branch in their area will enable them to fully participate in commercial farming.
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Alex Bob Rugonde and Frank Mugiri, some of the farmers who attended the training thanked URUS for the great initiative to establish a local service center explaining that access to artificial insemination service in Rukungiri district has been hard due to limited trained animal scientists and high cost of equipment required to the work.
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After the training, URUS service center was opened up in Rwekurinjo, Buyanja Sub County, Rukungiri district.
