Agnes Mukangiruwonsanga’s cow could not conceive for the last two artificial inseminations it received recently. This, she said, frustrates her as a cattle farmer as it involves loss of both money and delays in expanding her livestock business. Delays in semen delivery to her and other cattle keepers is one of the factors for conception failure, the Gicumbi Dairy farmer told The New Times. “My cow received a third artificial insemination recently. I am hopeful it will happen this time,” she said. ALSO READ: Artificial insemination: Five common factors hindering cattle conception For her, the transport of bovine semen by drones which aerial logistics firm Zipline Rwanda said has already piloted, could be one of the solutions to addressing the problem “through expediting delivery” – pointing out that proper cattle feeding and knowing oestrus or heat period are also important in the cow’s ability to conceive. Overall, she said that so far, cow conception is not guaranteed for a single artificial insemination. ‘Super’ semen to get a desired quality breed, or sexed-semen which guarantees getting a female calf costs Rwf15,000, she said, in reference to the loss incurred by a farmer in case a cow does not conceive. During the African Conference on Agricultural Technologies (ACAT) 2025 which is being held in Rwanda from June 9 to 14, Zipline Rwanda announced that it carried out a pilot to deliver semen by use of drones, a move expected to address inefficiencies in transport of such a product which is one of the contributors to low conception success rate in cattle. Conception success rate in artificial insemination remains relatively low in the country, as it stood at an average of 40 per cent as of 2024, according to Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board. The trialled method helps achieve 90 per cent conception success rate. Pierre Kayitana, General Manager of Zipline Rwanda, told The New Times that the company undertook a pilot of bovine semen delivery by drones following a public outcry of farmers complaining about cases of unsuccessful artificial insemination services for bovine. This, he said, brought a lot of conflict between vets and the farmers. He stated that the move is an attempt to help address the matter through a technology solution. ALSO READ: New semen storage plant set to ease artificial insemination While liquid nitrogen – which is an extremely cold substance – can help keep bovine semen safe, Kayitana said that its quality gets impaired as a result of vets moving around for a long distance, and the fact that the product keeps shaking due to terrestrial transport by vehicles moving on uneven roads at a long distance. “We select the best quality of semen from the breeding centres, from the producers of semen, who have put the right extenders into them. We do a motility test of which one is good, which one is not good. We only take those with a high rate of quality,” he said. “At the moment, we have done six months of trial and our trial is already showing signs that it will be very successful. So now, when we deliver to the vet, he/she does some insemination, he/she is sure that we have already tested for him before flying, so at least already his chances of success are over 90 per cent. Progress in pig semen delivery and expansion to bovines Talking about performance in pig semen drone delivery which the company started with in 2021, Prosper Uruvugundi, Partnerships Manager at Zipline Rwanda, said that before, due to different challenges, it could take more than 8 hours for a farmer to get semen, which negatively affected its quality. He said the drones the company has can carry up to 3.3 kilos, each, which can inseminate 40 pigs with one delivery. A drone, he indicated, can do 210 kilometres round trip in less than two hours, which significantly reduces time. For example, we have a delivery site in the Western Province of Rwanda, called Mibirizi. So, by car, it will take you seven hours, but a drone takes only 50 minutes one way,” he said. Bovine and swine are quite different in terms of semen storage requirement, for example, it is kept in liquid nitrogen, he pointed out. He said that the bovine semen drone delivery trial was carried out in two districts in the Eastern Province and involved artificially inseminating about 400 cows. “After the current phase – we are confident that the result is going to be positive – we are going to scale to other remaining districts,” he said. The Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Mark Cyubahiro Bagabe, said that there was a need for Zipline to expand semen delivery by the use of drones to help address logistical challenges around artificial insemination, which causes delays. Generally, he said that the transportation of bovine semen, is somehow challenging because it is done in big cylinders, which are heavy and not strong enough to contain liquid nitrogen, pointing out that one weighs more than 10 kilos. This, Bagabe said, points to the need to increase the carrying capacity of drones in the country, or devise ways to put liquid nitrogen in smaller-quantity containers. Semen production centres are far from where farms are, he said, indicating that there are two in the country — one in Kigali, another in Huye District, Southern Province. “And so, if you want to transport it to the Eastern Province or the Western Province, it is quite a long way. So, that’s why we need to do it [transport semen by drones],” he said. Meanwhile, he underscored the crucial role of proper cow feeding and good health in the conception success.
