For many centuries, Rwandans were more attached to cows, goats, and sheep when it came to livestock farming, while pigs were mostly overlooked and considered dirty animals.
Similarly, eating pork carried cultural stereotypes, with many Rwandans not consuming the meat but reserving it for a few 'village people' and individuals who frequented bars--some, not all, but those who discovered early that pork is a delicacy.
Many Rwandans considered pigs a dirty animal, given how they were reared back in the day, in unkempt pigsties, due to a lack of knowledge about proper pig farming. As such, some considered pig meat dirty, just as they considered the animal. Many still hold this belief today.
When Peace Niyoyita set out to engage in livestock farming in 2017, she decided to opt for pigs because they multiply quickly, offer assured returns in a short time, and pig meat is an important source of protein, which can help improve meat consumption.
However, as she started her journey toward self-employment, she was well aware of the cultural nuances surrounding pig farming and the stereotypes surrounding pork. She knew it would be just a matter of time before people started seeing the benefits.
On a scorching Friday afternoon, we made our way to Bugesera District in Rwanda's Eastern Province for an interview with Niyoyita, the Managing Director of Ntarama Pig Farming on a Grand Scale Ltd. Over the past eight years, she has emerged as a role model in the farming community.
Upon arriving at her pig farm in Cyugaro Cell, Kidudu Village, we found workers busy preparing feed for the pigs to ensure that they thrived and multiplied. Their efforts not only aimed to meet the growing demand for meat but also to challenge long-held cultural stereotypes surrounding pigs and pork.
Niyoyita welcomed us with a warm smile and gave us an overview of her operations before inviting us for a tour of the farm, which was not just an eye-opener, but a glimpse into how many people could have deprived themselves of an opportunity simply by having a negative perception of pigs.
To ensure hygiene, she asked us to change into crocs or rubber boots and provided face masks and robes. We also stepped into a disinfectant liquid, following strict biosecurity protocols before heading toward the pig house.
With the precautions in place, the mother of two took us through her farm, which has grown to become one of Bugesera's most innovative agricultural ventures, one that many from across the country and beyond come to learn from.
She is the sole surviving member of her family; her parents, three siblings, and several other relatives were tragically killed in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. She was just 10 when the Genocide happened.
Today, Niyoyita is not only an embodiment of hope, but also a symbol of Rwandan resilience and determination. After the Genocide, she resumed her primary, secondary, and university education with the support of the welfare fund for Genocide survivors (FARG).
She holds a master's degree in Travel and Tourism Management, a course she took because she knew the country was putting its efforts into promoting tourism and travel, but somehow, life had its own plans, leading her into agriculture.
In 2013, after she got married and had two children, Niyoyita reached a sense of fulfilment that she survived and that, through her, those she lost still live, and she has a country to call home.
One year after marriage, she moved to the Eastern Province district, which is where her agricultural dream was born - deciding to quit what she was doing in the tourism and travel industry and focus on pig farming.
"In 2014, we came to live here in Bugesera. At that time, I was still employed in the tourism sector, getting gigs from the Rwanda Development Board and others. But after we settled here in Bugesera, my eyes were opened to agriculture," she says.
"We have been living here for the past 11 years. When we moved here, it still looked like a rural area, but close to the City of Kigali. As you can see, the district has developed, and it is becoming a city," Niyoyita says as she begins to narrate her journey.
She took her time to settle in the countryside and observe what the local people were doing, the type of agriculture they were engaged in, and what could be produced. She knew she also needed to do something.
"My eyes were opened to the many opportunities. I realised that people here were still engaged in rearing and breeding cows, which take a long time to multiply, but we needed to do something that was more business-oriented and more profitable," she says.
From tour operator to farmer
"I needed to do something that would help change people's minds. In 2017, I decided to go into farming. I was not born into a farming family, but I had some knowledge, and I was seeing what people here were doing," she says.
She decided to go into pig farming, starting Ntarama Pig Farming on a Grand Scale Ltd. with just 10 pigs, but ironically added the word 'grand' to the name, as though she anticipated how grand the project would grow.
"I used the word at the time, as you can see from the name, without any idea of how grand it would become, but I had a vision," she says.
She could have gone into other forms of farming because the soil in Bugesera is good, but pig farming was more appealing and offered more returns. She also knew it would benefit many others in the community.
"Pigs are money. That is what made me choose pigs. A pig may not give you the amount of money you want, but it comes really quick," she says.
"Another reason I chose pigs is because they multiply quickly. One pig gives birth to 10 piglets, and by the end of the year, it has given birth to 20 piglets. I thought this is the project I should go into," Niyoyita adds.
In 2017, she started the farm with 10 pigs, and in three months, she had about 150 pigs from the initial 10. This rapid growth was motivating enough for others to consider pig farming. It was at that point she realised the need for a mindset change, for people to start doing what really brings in quick revenues, especially if one has chosen to venture into agriculture as a business.
"As soon as I started, we had so many people coming to us looking to buy pigs for meat. I immediately realised that it is a good place to invest my money and time, rather than look around for jobs," Niyoyita says.
Since she started, she has sold about 2,040 pigs and currently has 425 pigs on the farm, but the number keeps changing as they sell and new ones are born.
Niyoyita has 50 female pigs, which are known as 'source pigs,' which keep giving birth, and these are the core and main assets of the farm.
"We consider these assets. They are insured. They are pigs that you can go to the bank and they will give you credit because they are valuable," she explains.
"If something happens to them, the insurance pays. They are basically the ones which give us the product we sell on the market," she adds.
In Bugesera, Niyoyita has become the focal point of pig farming, with locals coming to her not only for jobs but also to breed and get startup pigs to start their own farms.
"Here in Bugesera, we already have 340 people who have started their own pig farming projects after getting piglets from us. Some already have farms bigger than this one, having started from scratch," she says.
However, for Niyoyita, the biggest enablers of her business are people who come to buy pigs to slaughter -and those come in big numbers, given the demand for pork in bars, restaurants, and hotels.
"We have provided meat solutions on the market," she says, adding that it is her part in contributing to the economy, given the shortage of meat Rwanda faces.
She rears 100 per cent pure breeds, including one called 'Landrace,' a type of swine that has the capacity to give birth to many piglets, ensuring quick multiplication.
"She is a good mother. It suckles its piglets well, and they grow fast," she says of the pig, which belongs to the prime category in the group.
She also rears another breed known as Camborough, which is a robust and efficient sow with higher farrowing and breeding rates compared to other pigs.
Camboroughs, along with Piétrain breeds, which she also has on the farm, are known for their excellent meat quality, which has less fat, is very productive, and resistant to parasites and diseases.
"We received these new breeds through the Rwanda Agricultural Board, which gave them to us in 2020, through a government initiative to promote the pig farming sector," she says, commending government support to boost their efforts.
On the same farm, she also has other breeds received from RAB, including Large White (which is actually pink-skinned), which is also characterised by quick breeding and productivity, and the short-legged Duroc pigs, also known for their high-quality meat and rapid growth.
It is a mix of both reproductive pigs, which are combined with meat-producing pigs, for a perfect and faster cycle of productivity and profitability.
Niyoyita says the focus now is on producing more lean meat, as people are no longer interested in fatty meat.
"Piétrain pigs are naturally lean, with 70 per cent meat and 30 percent fat. It is one of the most popular pigs in the market because people no longer want to eat fatty pork," she explains.
She observed that as a result of that, more people are now eating pork because previously some considered it too fatty.
"The Duroc, on the other hand, is a meat pig, which is also known to grow very quickly. Pigs with Duroc blood can reach up to 100 to 110 kg in just six months," explains Niyoyita.
Dismantling cultural beliefs
In Bugesera, where cows were traditionally the main livestock animal, perceptions of pigs and pork have changed. When people visit Niyoyita's farm, they realise how pig farming can be clean and modern.
"We are doing advanced professional farming, and knowing how to keep things clean is very important. Actually, the breeds we have here, when you put them in an unclean environment, they die," she explained.
The other perception they have been able to change is that pigs only eat dirty remains and residues. On the contrary, the pigs they rear eat specific feeds, assigned based on the breed and need.
One of the biggest challenges they face is the shortage of feeds. Sixty per cent of the feeds she uses are cereal-based--the same grains eaten by people, proteins such as soybean, silverfish, and other artificial sources like Meat and Bone Meal (MBM), as well as vitamin and calcium supplements to achieve fast growth and high-quality meat.
"There is a lot we need to grow a good-quality pig. Pigs eat planned meals, basically what people eat, not just anything you can throw at them if you want to produce high-quality products," Niyoyitasays.
"So far, the issue of feed is our biggest challenge because, as I mentioned, they eat what humans eat, so basically it is a competition for food. As food prices go up, the price of feed goes up," she says.
Today, people travel from as far as Kenya and other neighbouring countries to learn from her, including some who are already exporting to countries like China.
But locally, it is still a work in progress because, among other things, she still has to create awareness and tell people that pork is not just meat served in bars. It can be cooked at home and anywhere else. These perceptions mostly have to do with culture.
"As a country, we still have a gap in meat supply, and pork can help to fill that gap. We are a country with a growing population, soon approaching 14 million. We don't have a lot of land. Pigs provide a quick solution to these challenges," she says.
"You just need a small piece of land, and pigs multiply really fast. This is a solution that we have before us," she says.
She believes that if the issue of feeds is resolved, she could rear even more pigs, but the challenge remains around getting enough feeds.
"I always tell people that I should be having 5,000 pigs on my farm, but the challenge of feeds is difficult. You can even have the money but fail to get feeds," she says.
"Recently, we had a challenge because of the lack of corn. We use a lot of maize, and when it runs out before another harvest, we have to buy from traders. You realise you are spending more on feed," she says, adding that she had to limit the number of pigs she can keep at a time based on what she can afford.
Sometimes, she works with manufacturers to give her feeds on credit and pay them later.
When she took a leap of faith to go into pig farming, she got full support from her spouse, something she said played an important role.
Given how she helped others join pig farming, she was selected by RAB to be a model farmer and breeder through a joint project with Enabel, which is how she received improved breeds that are more productive.
"Initially, people had less productive breeds. You would find someone had a pig which took more than a year to reach 50 kg and would give birth to two piglets.
Similarly, the manner in which they reared them, in dirty environments, led to pigs getting infections and diseases," she says. "I think it was one of the reasons Rwandans never used to eat pork, because of the manner in which they did pig farming, which made people conclude that pigs are dirty, and so is their meat," she added.
She is a leading breeder, and her farm accommodates one of seven pig breeding centres established in 2022 by RAB and Enabel. She helps to supply high-quality pig semen to farmers in the district and beyond.
Niyoyita is thankful to the government because, through the project, she has not only developed herself but has also helped many households in Bugesera to start income-generating projects, and they are able to sustain themselves.
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The project has also helped the community have access to infrastructure and electricity, which has generally improved lives. She employs dozens on her farm, but her satisfaction comes from seeing households empowered.
Integrating technology
As of today, Niyoyita is not only helping farmers in Bugesera but also across the country. She is able to help a farmer in Nyamasheke District get high-quality semen, working with RAB and Zipline, which transports the semen using drones.
All they have to do is send a message, and the consignment will arrive. Through artificial insemination, farmers across the country are able to get high-quality breeds.
It is one of Rwanda's innovative solutions aimed at boosting the agriculture sector. She also goes out of her way to train fellow farmers on things like hygiene and other techniques of modern pig farming.
Beyond that, Niyoyita has a newly acquired slaughterhouse, which she says will help transform the pork business by producing high-quality pork products that meet the highest standards of hygiene across the country.
The slaughterhouse, equipped with a grant from the National Industrial and Research Development Agency (NIRDA), is awaiting an operational license from the Rwanda Inspection Competition & Consumer Protection Agency (RICA).
With the modern slaughterhouse, Ntarama Pig Farms will be able to process up to 50 pigs per day and contribute to a more sustainable and profitable pig farming industry in Rwanda. She is looking to add another factory that adds value to all pig products to maximise what she does.
Niyoyita is convinced that if everyone can adapt to modern pig farming, Rwanda would not only produce enough pork for domestic consumption to nourish households but also enough meat and products to export to other countries.
With a young adult pig costing about Rwf800, 000 and each pig giving birth to at least 10 piglets in six months and 20 in a year, this is easy income for households. This can be a real game-changer, according to Niyoyita.
A grown pure-breed pig costs Rwf3million when imported, while a 7-month piglet is priced between Rwf400, 000 and Rwf450, 000.
"In the coming years, I will also be able to solve the challenge of accessing the international market. I want to set up a facility where people can bring their products for value addition, to meet international standards," she says.
It is something she is already working on with the farmers and stakeholders in the agriculture value chain.
With such efforts, she believes soon they will be able to satisfy the Rwandan market and even have a surplus for export. She is also looking into integrating digital tools into her business, including profit-monitoring software.
Inspiring more women and girls into agriculture
Niyoyita believes women and girls can excel in agriculture, and she hopes her story can inspire more girls and women to join the sector.
"There are a lot of opportunities in the agriculture sector," she says, adding that currently, she employs more than 10 people, but with the slaughterhouse, the number of employees will go up to 50.
More than 1,000 people directly depend on the business.
