The National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLIRRI) has developed an embryo production facility that can produce over 200,000 high-quality affordable seeds per year. 

The facility, located at the Livestock Nutrition Research Centre at Nakyesasa under the management of the National Research Organization (NARO), has consequently been able to bring down the cost of embryos from the current open price of $500 (about sh1.85m) to $100 (about sh370,000), making them affordable to many livestock farmers. 

Dr. Swidiq Mugerwa, the director of Research at NaLIRRI said that one of the challenges Ugandan farmers have been facing was the lack of quality and affordable livestock seeds or stock, forcing many to resort to Kenya where they buy heifers and bulls at exorbitant prices to the tune of $500.

  “This is a big achievement that we have developed our facility, which can produce 200,000 embryos annually using a technique known as ‘In-vitro Fertilization’ (IVF),” he said. 

With this technique, the scientists identify an elite of high producing cow or high-quality beef animal and use it to ‘harvest’ up to 100 eggs. 

The eggs, according to Dr. Mugerwa are transferred to the embryo production facility and matured using high tech machines. 

They later fertilize them with the semen of the desired bull to form embryos, which are transferred into cows at the respective farm.   

He said the farmer only pays after the animal successfully conceives. 

He added that after nine months, the farmer is assured of a high-quality calf. 

Dr. Mugerwa was speaking to a delegation of livestock experts in Uganda for a five-day benchmarking exercise for scientists from East and Central Africa. 

They were in Uganda to visit NARO affiliated institutes, under which Uganda is a member of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), which ended on Friday, October 22. The ASARECA project is funded by the European Union. 

Countries that sent delegates included Burundi, Cameroun, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Madagascar, Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. The delegates visited the IVF and the andrology (semen) labs. 

“This facility is helping NARO to supply farmers with high quality and affordable embryos for good stocks, which has been our biggest challenge,” he said, adding that NARO has an embryo transfer program from the laboratory to the farm, where highly trained staff transfer sexed semen (embryos) to the farm and the farmer only pays for a successful pregnancy. 

He explained that the embryology platform is expected to improve the country’s overall total milk production for local consumption and sale abroad. 

Each of the dairy animals is expected to produce over 25litres of milk daily. The beef animals also attain daily growth and weight, giving high returns to the farmers. 

Mugerwa called upon the visiting delegates to use Uganda’s available technology for maximum output in their respective countries. 

He said NARO also hopes to benefit from the network established.