Agriculture

Makueni County on Wednesday played host to the 2019 World Food Day national celebrations usually marked annually on 16^th October.

The objective of the celebration is promoting worldwide awareness and actions for those who suffer from hunger and for the need to ensure food security and nutritious diet for all.

The event staged at Kwakathoka was graced by among others; Principal Secretary for Crop Development and Agricultural Research Hamadi Boga, governor Kivutha Kibwana, and top national officials of FAO and WFP.

Kibwana outlined notable milestones achieved by his administration in a quest to improve food security and enhanced incomes:

1. The identification and promotion of four key agricultural value chains; fruit, dairy, indigenous chicken and green grams. The value chains have substantially been streamlined from production to value addition including processing through development of Makueni fruit processing plant which is still under development to ensure enhanced return on investment; support to development of dairy aggregation across the county and processing plants at Kikima and Kathonzweni; the on-going development of a poultry slaughter house at Kitise and a grain processing plant at Makindu. This will ensure better quality and safer foods for the consumers while increasing the incomes to farmers.
2. Improved accessibility and affordability of agricultural inputs through linkages such as DigiFarm and KCEP-CRAL in collaboration with Safaricom and IFAD respectively, and the establishment by the county government of non-interest fund (Tetheka Fund) to enhance credit for agriculture and trade.
3. Water harvesting programme dubbed “Kutwiikania kiw’u “and subsequent food security programme “Operation Mwolyo Out (OMO)- One acre rule”. The strategy entails construction of farm ponds at farm level for the production of quality and nutritious food for the households. The strategy promotes the establishment of dairy, poultry, nutritional garden among others within one acre of land.
4. Enhanced agribusiness and youth involved in agriculture, a programme co-funded by world food programme and my Government.
5. Establishment of crop and livestock pest and disease surveillance and their control programme.
6. Promotion of climate smart agriculture in collaboration with FAO, to improve productivity and profitability and therefore enhance resilience among vulnerable communities. Some equipment used in the programme will be presented to the County in this event.
7. Construction of fresh produce markets, stock yards, and establishment of market linkages to enhance returns to the farmers.
8. The development of an Agricultural Training Centre (ATC-Kwakathoka). This institution hosts demonstrations in appropriate agricultural technologies as well as offering Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training (ATVET) services targeting our youth and other agricultural producers.
9. The establishment of County climate change policy and board which strives to reverse environmental degradation and ensure protection of water catchments areas.

In a bid to ensure quality agricultural products for both domestic and export markets, Makueni has shifted gears to building food safety systems.

According to governor Kivutha Kibwana, the aim of this campaign is to promote public health, and protecting the consumers against health hazards posed by unsafe agricultural products.

To achieve this feat, Makueni has partnered with Micro Enterprise Support Programme Trust (MESPT), and secured funding from the European Union through DANIDA to implement the campaign dubbed AgriFI Food Safety Programme.

At a meeting in Nairobi on Thursday between the Governor and officials from MESPT and the Royal Danish Embassy, it was agreed the programme will target three major value chains namely; Aquaculture, Dairy and horticulture.

MESPT acting Chief Executive Officer Charles Nyawade said the programme will involve among others:

Supporting the County Government in testing, surveillance and enforcement of Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary (SPS) regulations at the county level. This includes setting up of testing labs and provision of testing and surveillance kits and equipment.

Development and dissemination of value chain-based extension curricula modules, integrating the compliance to Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regulations.

Drive the consumer sensitization on food safety.

MESPT will also support development of the Agricultural Training Centre at Kwa Kathoka as one of the country’s model Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training (ATVET) centre.

The centre will be key in offering a holistic capacity building of all agricultural value chain actors especially farmers and extension officers.

According to Nyawade, the centre has already received two million shillings for basic infrastructural installations, while the county government has already established training infrastructure such as an aquatic hatchery, a fish farm as well as irrigation farm.

Farmers from Makueni, Machakos and Kitui counties are set to benefit from an irrigation agribusiness program, an initiative geared towards enhancing food security through irrigated agriculture.

The church community based project, launched at Vyulya village in Machakos is a brainchild of ABC Archbishop in charge of East Africa Timothy Ndambuki and supported by TIMADA LTD and Church Capacity Building and Support Centre (CCCBSC).

The program was unveiled by Archbishop Ndambuki, Makueni County Governor Kivutha Kibwana and Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Maliti on Wednesday.

According to the Archbishop, a successful model, tried and proven in Vyulya shall be replicated in the South Eastern Kenya Economic Bloc (SEKEB) to create employment and promote agribusiness across Ukambani and beyond.

“We want this to move to the three counties and we are urging them to walk with us. This will help us improve food security as well as create employment to our youth and women,” said Ndambuki.

The program, to adopt the Israel Moshav model, will entail training of farmers by experts on agricultural skills and supplied with various farm equipment and inputs. The farmers will further form a cooperative society that will help them market their produce as well as link them to export opportunities.

Makueni Deputy Governor Adelina Mwau together with her Machakos counterpart Eng. Francis Maliti on Friday officially opened the 2019 Makueni Agricultural Satellite Show at Makindu saying it is a good platform to promote agriculture for local farmers.

The two toured several exhibition stands where Makueni farmers showcased agricultural products, variety breeds of livestock and technological innovations. This year, the show received 85 exhibitors compared to 46 of last year.

“In 2016, the county government of Makueni endorsed the idea of starting our own show which was triggered by the realization that when agriculture performs well, economy grows automatically. Again, we are aware that we don’t have adequate extension officers, hence a show of GIANT classroom for farmers,” Mwau noted.

The DG further noted that since 2014, the government had utilised Sh 60 million in livestock value chain to upgrade livestock value as well as implementing disease control programme.

Mwau also announced that the county government has set aside Sh 7 million to set up an irrigation scheme in order to boost agricultural potential in Makueni.

DG Maliti while appreciating the county for the bold step to initiate an own local show, urged farmers to prioritise growing of drought resistant crops as one way of mitigating the effects of climate change.

He said: “We have recently noticed that the effects of climate change are real. As farmers, you should prioritise growing of traditional food crops such as sorghum, millet, cassava and green grams.”

The show which will close on Saturday was also graced by senior county officials from Makueni and Machakos as well as representatives from the Agricultural Society of Kenya.

Thousands of Makueni farmers are looking at better days growing sunflower with a ready and almost insatiable market provided by Bidco company limited.

Through contract farming, Bidco has partnered with Makueni County and Safaricom through use of a mobile based app, Digifarm, through which farmers get agronomical advise, credit facilities and all the necessary extension services on their mobile phone.

The journey towards sunflower production in the County began in November 2018 when Bidco through DigiFarm Contracted 640 farmers to plant the crop as a pilot project.

According to Governor Kivutha Kibwana, the pilot project covered 941ha, harvesting 941 metric tons of sunflower seed valued at about Shillings 35 million.

Purchase of this produce was flagged off at Kathonzweni by governor Kibwana, Safaricom’s Director of Enterprises Business Rita Okuthe, and Bidco head of Agribusiness John Kariuki on Thursday.

Kariuki announced that Makueni has been identified as a model county for sunflower seed growing in the country where those aspiring to venture into the business will come for bench marking.

Out of the 10,000 metric tonnes of sunflower seeds demand by Bidco annually, Makueni has been allocated a 2,000 quota by the company, a motivator to the local farmers to take up its production.

To spur uptake of the crop, Kibwana has said that the county has recruited 75 extension officers trained on using the Digifarm platform in farmer service delivery and equipped with 75 mobile smart phones to enable adoption of the platform by the extension officers.

Another 33 tablets have been sourced for supervisors.

He said begining March, the county has kicked off Soil testing activity at a subsidized cost of Shillings 300 to the farmers. The soil test gives a detailed report after 5 minutes.

Kathonzweni dairy farmers on Friday were handed over a milk processing plant that will help in enhancing milk processing in the area and the county at large.

The plant which has a capacity to pasteurize 1000 litres of milk per hour is a project courtesy of a partnership between the County Government of Makueni and USAID through the International Livestock and Research Institute(ILRI).

According to the Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society chairman Stephen Kyonda, the plant is a step towards achieving their vision of being the leading in producing quality and quantity milk in Ukambani.

“Guided by our vision of being the leading Dairy Cooperative Society in producing quality and quantity milk in Ukambani, we have no doubt that this plant is not at the right place,” Kyonda stated.

Chief of Party ILRI Dr Romano Kiome who graced the handover ceremony urged the farmers to increase the membership of the cooperative in order to have steady supply of milk to the plant for meaningful processing.

Kiome further said that the handover was meant to have the farmers manage the plant and ensure its full operations before the official commissioning scheduled in few weeks’ time.

Makueni Deputy Governor Adelina Mwau called for prudent management of the cooperative for maximum benefit to the farmers.

She also urged the farmers to take advantage of the free artificial insemination services offered by the county government in order to increase yields of milk.

Makueni green gram farmers are set to reap big from the crop as the national government steps in to promote the crop as a model one for the county.

This was announced by Principal Secretary for Agriculture Hamadi Boga on Thursday during a county farmers’ field day at Kwa Kathoka KALRO farm, which the PS presided over on behalf of Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri.

The event was organized by the County Government in collaboration with the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) and was meant to educate farmers on smart agricultural practices and the appropriate seeds for maximum productivity.

Boga said the people of Makueni would be given an opportunity to choose one model crop that the ministry would promote through farmer capacity building, marketing and other value chain linkages to ensure maximum profitability.

The farmers, under the guardianship of the Agriculture Executive Committee Member Lawrence Nzunga picked ‘Ndengu’ as their preferred model crop.

Governor Kibwana, who hosted the PS, said out of the county government’s support and that of its partners, the acreage under pulses ( Beans, cowpeas, green grams and Dolichos) in the county has increased to 255,432 hectares with an estimated value of over Sh 8 Billion.

Kibwana said the County is now focusing on grain processing with plans a foot to construct the Makindu Integrated Grain Processing Facility to add value to pulses and enable farmers access both local and export markets.