Nyagatare District’s decision to reach out to Kigali-based livestock farmers and encourage them to embrace modern farming should be taken seriously.

The district has set ambitious targets to increase milk productivity from the current average of about 2.3 litres per cow per day to 6.3 litres next year and eventually 15 litres within three years. Achieving this will require a fundamental change in how livestock farming is approached, especially by people who own sizeable farms in the district but live elsewhere.

For years, Nyagatare has attracted people from Kigali and other parts of the country who acquired large tracts of land, particularly for cattle keeping. For many, however, farming has remained little more than a side activity — a place to visit over the weekend rather than a serious commercial enterprise.

That approach is no longer sustainable.

Government has invested heavily in transforming agriculture in the Eastern Province, including irrigation infrastructure aimed at reducing dependence on increasingly unpredictable rainfall. Rwanda is also expanding irrigation nationally and investing in systems that farmers are expected to manage sustainably and use to increase productivity.

Nyagatare itself has enormous agricultural potential. Initiatives such as the Gabiro Agribusiness Hub have brought water, electricity and other infrastructure closer to farmers precisely to unlock commercial agriculture and strengthen national food security.

Those investments must translate into production.

Land, especially large agricultural holdings, cannot simply become an asset held for prestige, speculation or occasional leisure. Owners must invest in improved breeds, quality animal feed, veterinary care, modern irrigation, professional farm management and market-oriented production.

The days when one could keep a few cattle on hundreds of hectares, occasionally drive from Kigali to inspect them and still consider themselves a serious farmer should be behind us.

Rwanda is a small, densely populated country whose land must work harder. At the same time, climate shocks and disruptions to global food supply chains have repeatedly demonstrated why domestic food production is a national security issue.

This is why Kigali-based landowners in Nyagatare should heed the district’s call.

Those ready to farm commercially should be supported with knowledge, technology and access to finance and markets. But those unwilling or unable to put agricultural land to productive use should seriously consider transferring it to investors and farmers who will.

Ownership of productive land must come with responsibility. Nyagatare has the land, infrastructure and market opportunities. What is now needed is a generation of farmers prepared to treat agriculture not as a hobby, but as the serious business that it is.

Finally, this should not stop at Nyagatare, it should extend to neighbouring districts like Gatsibo and Kayonza and other similar cattle corridors like Gishwati.