Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal
Production (ISAE)
Dr. Jean Ruboneka
Director
Contact details : Tel: +250-516265 Mobile: +250-08301973 E-mail:isaedir@yahoo.fr
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.
(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.