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2000 Ukia Farmers Adopt Hass Avocado as their New Green Gold.

Over 2000 farmers drawn from Ukia ward in Kaiti Sub-County are beneficiaries of graft avocado scions  (Hass variety), courtesy of the Department of Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperative Development, Makueni County.
The initiative, a product of public participation, is geared towards supporting the farmers to increase productivity and profitability in the avocado value chain. The program also aims to enhance market access and business linkages to the farmers.
The Hass avocado is a new variety that has been scientifically modified through grafting to significantly reduce its maturity period to between 2.5 years and 3 years from the typical period of 6 to 7 years.
According to Agriculture Chief Officer Daniel Ndolo, Hass Avocado is the new goldmine for modern farmers and urged farmers to plant more avocadoes.
 
This is because Hass-avocado does not require much labor and time to maintain. In addition, the demand for avocados is extremely high and can’t satisfy the current local demand and in the European countries.
 
Ndolo spoke on Tuesday at Kilala Chief’s Office where he launched the scions distribution exercise and handed over the scions to 15 grafters, who have been trained and will offer the grafting services to the earmarked farmers.
The County has so far distributed close to 60,000 improved Hass variety seedlings to farmers in the avocado growing areas and is at the forefront to transform the avocado value chain into a robust economic enterprise to impact positively on the livelihoods of the community.

200 FARMERS BENEFIT FROM A DAIRY TRAINING TO ENHANCE MILK PRODUCTION

Over 200 farmers on Wednesday were trained on dairy farming techniques at the Makueni Agricultural Training Centre.

The event was graced by Joyce Mutua, who serves as the CECM for the Department of Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperative development.

The training was organized in conjunction with Unga Farm Care and Remington to provide better ways to enhance milk production through improved dairy feeds and collective improvement in dairy farming practices. This is expected to lead to a significant increase in dairy production.

The participating farmers came from four dairy member cooperatives within the Lower Eastern Dairy Cooperative Alliance (LEDCA), namely Kaiti, Kilala, Wote and Kathonzweni.

Mutua commended the farmers for their eagerness to attend such training sessions and emphasized that the county government is committed towards revamping dairy production through initiatives such as Kikima and Kathonzweni milk processing plants.

20 VILLAGES IN MASONGALENI TO BENEFIT FROM UYI DAM.

20 villages in Masongaleni Ward are poised to benefit with clean water from Uyi earthdam desilted by the county government in partnership with the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA).

Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr on Wednesday launched the Sh 50M rehabilitation works of the dam during a development tour of Masongaleni Ward.

The dam is a reprieve to hundreds of residents who have to travel long distances to fetch water from River Athi, sometimes risking attacks by crocodiles and hippos.

Some of the targeted villages include Yikitaa, Ngomano, Kyuasini, Maiani, Yimuange, Ngukuni, Nguumo, Kiliani, Makuuni, Yinguvu, Utini, Yimboo, Sokomoto, Ngomeni and Yimavui. Three schools, two market centres and a dispensary will also benefit.

1st Quarter Budget Implementation Report FY 2018-19

During the first quarter for FY 2018/19, the County Government received 5 per cent and 23 Per cent of the equitable share and donor and grants respectively. The Government has mobilised 12% of the own source revenues and no disbursemnets have been made for the conditional allocations. The total expenditure for the first quarter amounts to Kshs 1,015,612,996 out of which Ksh 851,339,006 represents salaries expenditure and Kshs. 164,273,990 represents Operation & Maintenance. There were no development expenditures.

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1,500 PUPILS IN MAKUENI BENEFIT FROM DIGNITY PACKS.

Atleast 1,500 school going children from 15 schools in Makueni have been assured of uninterrupted learnig after receiving dignity packs during the Menstrual Hygiene Day on Tuesday.

The dignity packs targeting mostly teenage girls are meant to ensure no child misses school because of a biological condition. Those in marginalized areas, opharns, Children with chronically ill parents and children with a traumatic past will be given priority.

County First Lady Anita Mutula presided over the event at Kiongwani Primary School. The program is spearheaded by the Department of Health Services in conjuction with that of Gender, Children, Youth and Social Services.

150 young people to benefit from agribusiness training scholarships

At least 150 young people from Makueni County will undergo an intensive three months agribusiness training at the Miramar International College, Nairobi.

The 150 are representatives from the 30 wards, awarded scholarships by the German International Development Agency (GIZ), through the County government and KCB foundation.

The youths will be trained on hydroponics technology at the college for three months, and undergo a further three month training at the field.

They will also undergo business incubation where they will learn how to develop business and marketing plans besides enjoying discounted financing and ready market for their products.

This training is spearheaded by the Makueni Youth Empowerment Service (M-YES) and Makueni County Government’s department of Education,Youth, Sports and ICT.

The 150 youths were flagged off to Nairobi by governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana, GIZ advisor on Employment for Sustainable Development Dr.Henrik Schmidtke and KCB senior manager partnerships John Waimiri at ATC Kwakathoka Wednesday.

Governor Kibwana said his administration will continue to invest in projects that create jobs or enable youths to start their own businesses.

“It is our hope that initiatives like this one shall make agriculture more attractive to youth, promote use of technology in Agriculture, improve young people’s skills and enable them create job opportunities in Agribusiness,” he said.

“Engaging the youth population fully is therefore nolonger a choice but an imperative in the development process that is also recognised by the Makueni County Government Vision 2025,” Kibwana said further.

Dr.Schmidtket said the economic potential of the youth working in the informal sector is far from being fulfilled, mainly due to their insufficient access to knowledge, information and education, limited access to capital assets including land, inadequate access to financial services and limited access to markets.

He said providing youth in the informal sector with skills and enterprise development is a critical driver of job creation, income generation and overall improvement of livelihoods.

Makueni Human-Wildlife conflict claimants to receive compensation

Makueni Human-Wildlife conflict claimants to receive compensation from March, CS Malonza says
Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr on Friday met Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Peninah Malonza to fast track pending compensation claims on human-wildlife conflict cases in Makueni.
The CS disclosed that plans are underway to settle the backlog of claims received by June 2022. She said: “We will pay the pending claims. I have already approved the budget and by march we should be starting the payments to claimants of loss of live and property cases.”
However, the Tourism CS decried of limited resources but her ministry is pushing for establishment of conservation fund as one of the ways of supplementing budget from the exchequer. Besides settling of the unpaid claims, Malonza said they were exploring ways to end human-wildlife conflict.
Malonza further announced that the government has already committed funds to electric fence the remaining section of Kitui Game Reserve bordering Masongaleni at River Athi. “I am happy that Makueni is already doing 93 Kilometres. We commit to do the remaining section that remains exposed at the kitui Game reserve,” said Malonza.
Governor Mutula sought for a collaboration with the ministry to assist the county in areas of tourism promotion, wildlife conservation and culture. Technical officers from the two teams are working together to establish specific areas of partnership ahead of official signing of their engagement.

1,000 Makueni farmers benefit from coffee seedlings

Over 1,000 farmers from Mbooni Sub-County have benefitted from coffee seedlings in a move to boost coffee farming in the area.
The county gave the Batian composite variety, the best coffee variety which is a mixture of different pure lines for that region.
The seedlings, a donation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock was flagged off by Agriculture Executive Joyce Mutua on Thursday at Nzaini Coffee factory.
She was accompanied by Executives Dr. Sonia Nzilani (Lands and Environment), Nicholas Masila Nzioka (Gender) and Mbooni MCA Hon. Alexander Mulemba, who took part in the distribution exercise across various coffee factories in the locality.
“This Batian we are giving to farmers is an improved variety and is tolerant to Coffee Berry Disease, leaf rust and has high production,” said Mutua
Hon. Mulemba called on the farmers to take advantage of the public participation forums during the budget making processes so as to allocate enough funds for coffee production.
They also took part in planting coffee seedlings within the compounds of some of the 7 coffee factories in Mbooni.