Innovation opportunities for milk production in Rwanda with lessons from the Mudende innovation platform

While milk in Rwanda is recognized to have potential for enormous contribution to the food security, nutrition and employment situation in the country, national milk production has remained well below to levels that can sufficiently enhance this contribution. The overall objective of the study was to conduct a value chain analysis that would enable the identification of innovative opportunities that exist to boost milk production in Rwanda. This paper specifically analyses the environment within which the milk value chain operates, and the functionality of the value chain at the Innovation Platform. Innovation opportunities to improve milk production are found to lie in the interaction of a diversity of stakeholders and partners to provide critical services for production, to dairy farmers. These would include extension, veterinary provision, and financial service provision, interacting together with farmers at the production stage to ease the acquisition of critical inputs and knowledge. Further opportunity exists to engage milk processors, health workers and nutritionists as new stakeholders at the production stage. This would not only inspire milk utilization by the population, but would subsequently enhance milk production in the country.