Rwanda Goat Production: A Key Element for Economic Growth and Sustainable Development

This project analyses the possibility of goat production for sustainable development and improvement of livelihoods of Bugesera district farmers. The specificity of this study relied on the mixed mechanism of crops and livestock production for tiring small land where other sustainable agricultural mechanisms are inexistence or almost impossible to implement. This study applied quantitative and qualitative methodologies to analyze the real consequences of intensive use of inorganic fertilizers and proposed a coping mechanism of goat manures as a sustainable solution for small landholders. It combines data that captured the fields yields, and applied quantity of organic and inorganic manures in experimental fields to grow different crops, the experiment fields replicated using organic and inorganic fertilizers data were collected for comparability aspect. The study associated those findings with the structured interview questionnaire to examine further the importance of goat production on livelihood improvement as ultimate objective to alleviate poverty sustainably. Also, this study concluded by showing the potential role that the goat production intervention should have for sustainable development in Bugesera district. This requires a dramatic change in both policy and technological need to foster the economic development especially to alleviate the poverty by ensuring a sustainable living mode for farmers and increase their wellbeing using affordable investment to increase the small lands productivity and provide alternative sources of income for farmers who are heavily dependent on agricultural production.