The Nyagatare District is located in Rwanda’s Eastern Province (Figure 1). The entire District was part of the Akagera National Park until 1994, when the Park’s size was reduced and a portion of the area was opened up for human settlement. Many of those settling in the new District have been former refugees returning from neighbouring countries who have brought livestock with them. However, there are also some migrants from other parts of the country (Niyonzima2009). The government initially gave land in the District to newcomers. With increased land scarcity, markets have developed for renting land as well as for purchasing it outright. Of the farmers interviewed for the dataset used in this study, over 80% reported having been given at least part of their current plot from the government; almost 30% had either purchased some of their land from another private landowner, and/or been given some of their land by relatives who had owned it previously.
The importance of livestock development in Nyagatare can be attributed to the dedication of the bulk of the District to cattle when land was redistributed after the 1994 genocide. The existence of vast areas has facilitated the development of cattle breeding; in more densely populated farming areas in Rwanda, where land is scarcer, livestock farming is less widespread. Indeed, grazing is banned in most other parts of the country. The District has, therefore, become one of the country’s main livestock-producing areas, and supplies almost half of Rwanda’s milk. Government and numerous foreign donors have invested considerable amounts in infrastructure for processing both dairy and meat products (Rutamu2008).
Access to water has been perceived as an important constraint to the expansion of livestock production in the District. The local, traditional livestock breeds can typically walk long distances every day for water and grazing. However, the modern, improved livestock varieties introduced into the Nyagatare area after 1994 yield more milk and meat than the traditional varieties, but are also more sensitive to walking long distances for water. Thus, rural development schemes have included investments in improved storage dams for rainwater, as well as dams supplied with pumped groundwater. The Livestock Infrastructure Support Programme (LISP) for 2011–2015 lists improved water supply first among its infrastructure targets for livestock farmers, and entails setting up over 70 new livestock watering points, with the investment costs in Nyagatare District budgeted at some 3.5 billion Rwandan Francs for 2013 alone.
The funds devoted to these dams could have been spent on other rural development activities, or on other water supply measures. For example, many District households still lack access to potable water and purchase their water from private vendors. Investment in domestic water supply in the District is budgeted at some 2.5 billion Rwandan Francs for 2013 and will remain at similar levels throughout the current planning period, so this is not a hypothetical trade-off: the funds spent annually on improved water infrastructure for livestock in Nyagatare are greater than those spent on improved water infrastructure for people. Apart from the trade-off in funding, there is also a more direct trade-off in terms of the water itself: some of the new water supply points use groundwater which could have been used as a source of drinking water. Thus, although increased water use for livestock may not translate directly into more scarce and more expensive water for households, it does have important indirect effects on the water scarcity facing households because of these trade-offs.
Despite the importance of water, when given a choice, households in the Nyagatare area tend to settle on the top of hills, some distance from water points, rather than occupying the lower levels closer to the water. This is because although the differences in height are not great (usually not more than meters or tens of meters), and the hills and lowlands largely share the same agricultural characteristics, the lower-lying areas close to water have commonly been prone to malaria and livestock diseases. Those households that have settled close to water are often relative latecomers to the District, and have been forced to settle in former common land areas. Such common land areas were previously located around water points, but are now disappearing due to the individualisation of land rights and increased overall pressure on the land. The water points themselves remain communal, with access open to all, but the land surrounding them is, thus, increasingly being privatised.
The fact that livestock from many different herds assemble at the same water points increases the risk of disease contagion between herds, especially for those farmers whose livestock spend a large part of their time close to the water points. This means that although farmers are quick to switch to a closer water point when one is established, establishing new water points is not necessarily a net positive for all farmers. A new water point will reduce the average number of livestock visiting each water point and, thus, reduce overall disease transmission. However, the number of livestock visiting the vicinity of the new water point will increase, and farmers who are near the new water source may well see their livestock becoming more susceptible to disease as a result. Thus, while the overall impact of improved water access on productivity should be positive because the overall exposure to disease is reduced, the individual farmer might experience reduced productivity if the changes in herding patterns lead to increased susceptibility to disease for that farmer’s herd.
The clear priority given to expanding access to water for livestock, over e.g. water for domestic use, might be justified if it leads to dramatic increases in productivity. However, the two main channels through which productivity might improve are through reduced walking distances for cattle, which is only relevant for a fraction of the overall herds, and the reduced susceptibility to disease for those herds that are affected positively, which will be partly outweighed by increased susceptibility to disease for other herds. It is useful, therefore, to examine how much improved access to water actually contributes to the livestock industry.