Makueni County Feted for Stellar Performance in the implementation of NARIGP
Makueni County has been feted by the World Bank for commendable performance in the implementation of the National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP).
The County emerged position three for the period between 2019 and 2023 for satisfactorily implementing NARIGP in the 20 selected wards in Makueni.Trans-Nzoia and Nakuru Counties took the first and the second positions respectively.
NARIGP is a 5-year Government of Kenya project that is implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Fisheries and Irrigation with funding support from the World Bank.
The project’s goal is to increase agricultural productivity and profitability of targeted rural communities in selected Counties, and in the event of an Eligible Crisis or Emergency, to provide immediate and effective response.
According to the World Bank, Makueni County had funded more than 600 micro-projects across the four value chains namely mangoes, green grams, poultry and tomatoes.
In addition, the county had trained over 10,000 farmers on agriculture best practices and had adopted new technologies for increasing productivity. These were some of the county performance indicators used by the World Bank to rank the counties
According to the County Project Coordinator Paul Musyimi who received the award on behalf of the County on 7th of June 2023 in Mombasa, “We have supported over 700 groups and 24,000 farmers in Makueni to start micro-projects in tomatoes, poultry, green grams and mangoes.”
Musyimi also revealed that they had spent over Sh 700 Million since the inception of the project in 2017, to empower local farmers with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity and profitability.
Apart from funding and capacity-building farmers, a key premise of the National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP) is the importance of linking farmers or Common Interest Groups (CIGs) and Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups (VMGs) organized along priority Value Chains to markets.