• The seedlings are meant to help farmers from the Rift Valley County diversify fro m maize farming.
• Governor Mwangi wa Iria pledged to donate to donate the seedlings while visiting Uasin Gishu governor Jackson Mandago in February.
Image: Alice Waithera
Uasin Gishu county has received 10,000 Hass avocado seedlings from Murang’ a which will be distributed to farmers.
Murang’ a chief officer of agro-marketing Bernard Kariuki has said the move follows a pledge made by governor Mwangi wa Iria to help strengthen avocado farming in the Rift valley County.
While visiting Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago in February, Wa Iria said the seedlings would go a long way in helping farmers to diversify from maize farming.
He said an acre of maize that brings an income of Sh60,000 per season has the capacity to make Sh1 million through avocados.
"An acre can have 200 trees which can produce 1,000 fruits every season. We are not saying that you stop maize farming but that you diversify," he told representatives of co-operatives.
The chief officer who was overseeing the loading of the seedlings said co-operatives officials from Uasin Gishu visited the county two weeks ago to benchmark on co-operatives.
Wanyoike said Murang’ a has one of the strongest co-operative movements in the country and has been able to exploit it to help farmers get better prices for their produces.
“In agri-business, the most important thing is to position the farmer to get a good market for the product and negotiate good prices,” he said.
The officials also learned about avocado farming that is thriving in Murang’ a County, making it the largest avocado producing area in the country.
The two governors, he said, will continue engaging to ensure the avocado farming practice takes root in Uasin Gishu and reduce farmers’ over-reliance on maize while strengthening the co-operative movement.
Murang’ farmers have been able to engage private companies in contract farming through co-operatives that have seen a litre of milk fetch a minimum of Sh35 per liter.
Avocado farmers have also been able to negotiate for better prices through the county government with a fruit fetching a minimum of Sh.8 per.
A women's sacco formed by Wa Iria in 2014 has been able to complete a Sh100 million commercial building that fetches about Sh. 1 million per month in rent.
Jonah Mutai, the officer in charge of crops in Moiben Sub-county who received the seedlings accompanied by other officials said the county government has been advising farmers to diversify their farming to increase their returns.
Mutai lauded Wa Iria for his gesture saying that avocado farming has been minimal in the county in past years but is slowly improving.
“Right now, we have about 200 hectares on avocado but mature trees are minimal,” he said, noting that the county government started emphasizing the need for farmers to plant the fruit trees last year which has improved the acreage.
Mutai said that 70 percent of the all land in the county is under maize farming which disadvantages farmers when maize prices fall.