 HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND |
The Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal
Production (abbreviated in French as ISAE) was
established by the Government of Rwanda in 1989
at Busogo- Ruhengeri as its base. Till 1994, it
had trained 66 Diploma Holders at A1 level which
consisted of 13, 25, 28 in the domains of Plant
Protection, Animal Production and Soils, respectively.
The low turn-over of the graduands could be traced
to insufficient funding, inadequate infrastructure
facilities and lack of equipment and materials.
This scenario was also inextricably connected
with acute scarcity of qualified and experienced
teaching staff.
| OBJECTIVES |
· Prime Objectives
The four-fold objective of the ISAE is training,
research, extension and production. These broad
objectives could further be defined through specific
components, such as:
(i) to train A1 level agricultural technicians
in the domains of Plant Production, Animal Production,
Agro-Economics, Agro-Forestry, Animal Health and,
Soil and Water Management.
(ii) to undertake research activities in the
above-mentioned disciplines.
(iii) to provide extension services and continuing
education in order to disseminate and promote
transfer of modern and improved technologies to
the rural mass.
(iv) to venture into crop and animal production,
which not only serves as a demonstration tool
to the trainees, but also as a vital source of
income for running this Institute.
· The secondary objectives
(i) to participate, follow-up and evaluate the academic
programmes
of the secondary schools of Agro-Veterinary at A2
level.
(ii) to provide technical assistance to these
schools in order to strengthen their teaching
capacity.
(iii) to train and re-train agriculturists and
livestock assistants, and to provide technical
support to cattle rearers, in addition to adequate
training of agricultural field officers in agro-forestry,
soil and water conservation and management etc.
| ACADEMIC
PROGRAMMES |
· Existing Programmes
The academic programme of the ISAE consists
of six Departments, namely,:
(i) Plant Production
(ii) Animal Production
(iii) Soil and Water Management
(iv) Agro-Economics
(v) Agro-Forestry
(iv) Animal Health
The Departments of Plant Production and Animal
Production are functioning from the inception
of the ISAE, while that of Agricultural Engineering
was revived from the academic year 1999-2000.
From the academic year 2002-2003, the following
new Departments such as Agro- Economics, Agro-Forestry
and Animal Health. will start functioning. The
details of the student strength at present in
various Departments are presented in Table 1.
Future Expansion of Academic Programmes
According to the current (2002) rate of student
enrolment, ISAE is expected to have registered
a total of 3775 students in the year 2006, out
of which, over 994 shall have graduated as qualified
A1 Technicians in the domains of Plant production,
Animal production, Agro-Economics, Agro-Forestry,
Animal Health and, Soil and Water Management.
In order to achieve this target, corresponding
manpower (for teaching, administration and supporting
staff) shall be required. This is expected to
increase from 200 by the year 2006.
· The Need for Developments
(i) To meet the increasing demand for qualified
and skilled manpower at A1 level Agricultural
Technicians.
(ii) To improve teaching activities, particularly
with audio-visual aids.
(iii) To develop research, as envisaged during
the seminar on 'Overview of Research in Rwanda'
held at NUR, Butare, 2000.
(iv) To establish new departments in line with
requirement of specialized manpower in various
disciplines of Plant Production, Animal Production,
Agro-Economics, Agro-Forestry, Animal Health and,
Soil and Water Management.
(v) To increase agricultural and livestock production
with a view to supplementing the Government expenditure
on running of ISAE.
|
· Recruitment and Training of Teaching
Staff
In view of the increased number of students,there
is an urgent need to train local staff in various
domains of Agriculture and Animal Production,
including Soils and Water Management. Until the
time ISAE is able to train enough staff, there
is a need to recruit qualified and experienced
staff in the areas where there is short of manpower.
· Future Reorganization of Various
Departments by the year 2006
In line with the requirement of specialized
manpower by Government agencies, NGOs and related
organizations, the academic programmes of IASE
are expected to be expanded under various domains
of Agriculture as per the following details.
-Plant Production
(i) Agronomy
(ii) Plant Protection
(iii) Agro-Forestry
(iv) Agro-Economics
(v) Horticulture
-Animal Production
(i) Animal Production
(ii) Animal Health
(iii) Fishery
(iv) Hygiene and Inspection of Agro-products
-Agricultural Engineering
(i) Rural Engineering
(ii) Soil and Water Management
(iii) Agricultural Mechanization
(iv) Post-Harvest Technology
(v) Food Science & Technology
Required Expansion Activities for teaching,
research, Extension and production
Adequate infrastructural and logistic support
are needed for commercial production in the following
broader domains of Agriculture. .
(A) Animal Production
(i) Dairy and Beef production
(ii) Sheep and Goat Production
(iii) Poultry Production
(iv) Pig Production
(v) Rabbit Production
The ISAE is also expects to establish a milk
processing plant, and an animal feed mill. In
order to achieve this objective, the ISAE requests
Government assistance in
(i) Acquiring additional pasture lands, preferably
at GISWATI
(ii) Establishment of a field station at Mutara.
(B) Crop Production
The ISAE has acquired and developing 33ha of
far land in Rugende valley. Process is under way
to obtain a further 40 ha. Therefore, by providing
necessary inputs, this farm can witness a rapid
increase in production of various crops, which
will form a sound revenue generating base. The
following facilities are expected to be provided.
(i) Building of two green houses
(ii) Development of existing research stations:
Rubilizi (35 ha) and Busogo (22 ha)
(iii) Establishment of 2 meteorological stations
at Rubilizi and Busogo
(C) Agricultural Engineering
One of the cardinal objectives of this domain,
in addition to teaching and research, is the effective,
appropriate and adequate management of the valleys
and the hills of the ISAE Farm as a model to the
students. Therefore, enough equipment and other
materials are urgently needed to achieve this
objective. In addition, appropriate agricultural
implements are required for teaching, research
and demonstration purposes in the domains of agricultural
mechanization. A workshop is to be built maintenance
of agricultural machinery and implements.
(D) Extension Services
(i) In addition to undertaking teaching for
full time/long term students, the Institute envisage
short courses as a principal component of 'continuing
education' in various domains of Agriculture and
Animal Production.
(ii) This approach will facilitate in establishing
the 'village outreach programme for farmers to
participate in the 'experimentation'/trial on
site of new technologies.
Location of ISAE at TWO SITES- Rubilizi and
BUSOGO
From the academic year 2002, part of the students,
i.e. the first year students are to be stationed
at Busogo and the students of second and third
year will remain at Rubilizi. At Busogo, infrastructure
facilities such as laboratories for basic sciences
are expected to be provided by ADB before September,
2002.
Table
1. Distribution of students in six Departments
during the academic year 2002-2003.
Table
2. Existing Teaching Staff Strength in various
Specialization during the academic year 2002
Table
3. Recruitment of Teaching staff by the year 2006.
|
RWANDA
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