Garissa herders urged to adopt behaviour change for better yields

Garissa livestock department in partnership with Livestock Marketing Systems has launched an awareness campaign to sensitise herders to adopt behaviour change.

The campaign dubbed ‘Ufugaji bora, Maisha bora’ seeks to change their behaviour to realise better yields for produce.

The herders will learn proper animal husbandry methods through a programme on Star FM.

Deputy director of livestock Joel Okal said for the next 10 weeks, experts will teach pastoralists various modern techniques to boost their yields. 

The campaign objective is to promote behaviour change by addressing social constraints. 

The social and environmental norms being targeted in the campaign include producers adopting promoted animal health technologies, to increase the health and value of their livestock. 

Others are producers who use high-quality feed regularly for their livestock, sell their livestock through aggregation channels like farmers groups and saccos, adopt improved hygienic milking, handling and preservation practices,

More targets are producers who regularly consume animal source foods from the purchase or own production.

Okal said the programme has been necessitated by the realisation that the biggest setback for pastoralists in realising Sh50 billion annual income potential, is rooted in outmoded social and behaviour practices.

Response to the communication provided in this campaign will lead to every shilling invested in livestock, translating to returns of Sh38 for cows, Sh36 for goats and Sh32 for camels for smallholder livestock producers.

The Kenya livestock marketing council chairman Dubat Amey said the programme had come at the right time.

He was optimistic that it will go a long way in revitalising the sector, which is the region's economic backbone.

“I hope our people will have received the necessary knowledge in smart farming. What is important is our people first have a positive behaviour change, then other things will fall into place,” Dubat said.

Edited by Kiilu Damaris