By Francis Kagolo

MAKERERE University is to start an animal institute which will produce vaccines and drugs for livestock and wild animals.

The Africa Institute for Strategic Animal Resource Services will also train youth in livestock management.
It will promote value addition and develop high market value products from cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and rabbits.

to support the institute, the university will put up farms and other centres across the country to equip farmers and youth with advanced skills in animal husbandry and to process their products.

The project, supported by the President’s office and the agriculture ministry, aims at transforming the animal industry into a leading driver of the national economy.

According to university documents, the university council approved the institute last month. It is expected to open next academic year in August.

The institute is under the faculty of veterinary medicine and its programmes will be managed in collaboration with some of the world’s leading universities.
They include North Dakota State University, Michigan State University, the University of Edinburgh and Ceva Asante Animale.

The animal industry contributes at least 35% of the national GDP. With the rapidly growing domestic and regional market, experts say a livestock revolution presents immense opportunities for national development.

According to the documents, the Government expects the institute to accelerate the poverty eradication programmes, boost food safety and reduce youth unemployment.

The institute is among those expected to increase Makerere’s student intake next academic year.

According to its prospectus, the institute will enroll 6,000 certificate and diploma holders, 1,000 bachelor’s degree holders, and 500 masters and PhD holders in five years.

To speed up the programmes, President Yoweri Museveni allocated the university a farm in western Uganda while the agriculture ministry offered it a one square mile piece of land in Kiboga district.

The vice-chancellor, Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, said the institute is in line with the university’s plan to meet the emerging regional and global challenges.

He said efforts were being undertaken to boost research and the overall academic quality at the 88-year-old university.