Migori county has trained farmers from different subcounties to help them increase soya bean production.
This comes after several tobacco processing factories pulled out of the region.
Speaking to the press at the Agriculture Training College in Kisii town, Migori agriculture director Francisca Onyango said the two-week Farmers’ Business Field School sessions will help them market their yields.
“In this field business school, we are targeting farmers from Migori who grow soya beans which is an alternative for tobacco.
"We are teaching all the husbandry aspects of soya beans. The training will cover the spacing, growing, disease control and marketing aspect,” she explained.
Onyango added that the trainees will be taken for benchmarking in a field trip to help them understand proper soya bean farming aspects and share the same knowledge with farmers in their various subcounties and wards.
She highlighted that soya farmers lack the right information and knowledge about growing the crop, which is why the Food and Agriculture Organization has partnered with the county for capacity building and establishing FBFS.
“From here, we are going to start farmers’ business schools in every ward where we will be teaching the farmers how to plant soya beans, disease control, harvesting and even drying through practical ways.
"We are building our farmers’ capacity to grow soya beans in a profitable way,” Onyango added.
Migori also has farming community coaches linked to aggregators which the director says will check on the farmers growing soya beans and the quantity they produce before setting the prices.
“The prices of soya beans have not been high of late but we will want them (aggregators) to come into a kind of contract so that they know how much we are expecting from this crop by the time the farmers are going to plant,” she said.
Migori livestock director Charles Ogechi Nyaanga said the training also involved poultry farming which has attracted various partners.
“FAO has come to address issues of market. We have Blue Cross and National Agriculture Rural Inclusivity program that funded one of the producer organisations and already we have a slaughter slab,” Nyaanga said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
