• Government seeks to transform dairy, coffee, tea and avocado farming.
• Milk production projected to rise from the current 35 million litres to 90 million by end of 2022.
Image: HILTON OTENYO
Vihiga county has rolled out major projects aimed at promoting agribusiness to eradicate poverty.
Agriculture being the mainstay of the county economy, the government seeks to strengthen and streamline dairy, coffee, tea, and avocado farming to move away from the current subsistence agriculture to agribusiness through value addition.
On Thursday, Governor Wilber Ottichilo distributed dairy cows to farmers’ groups in a programme aimed at upgrading their stocks and increase milk production to meet the country's demand .
Speaking at Chango Forest, Ottichilo said his government targets to raise annual milk production from the current 35 million litres to 90 million by end of 2022. The county demand for milk stands at 65 million litres annually.
“This is a move by the government to help the local dairy farmers realize total transformation into modern dairy farming. All the beneficiaries of this programme will be trained starting next week on how to manage the animals to ensure expected production,” he said.
The governor also announced the reintroduction of coffee farming as well as supporting tea farmers to realize maximum benefits from their farming activities.
He said the county government had bought a pulping machine to encourage coffee farming among residents.
“We’re going to start construction of a coffee factory so that we can plant, harvest and package our coffee before we sell. To this end, we’ve already bought a pulping machine that will be delivered to Jebrock group in Hamisi subcounty,” he said.
He said Vihiga county used to produce a lot of coffee in the past but farmers got demoralized by poor management of their co-operatives which collected the produce from farmers but failed to pay them. Many farmers uprooted the crop.
He said county co-operatives officials will take charge. The governor distributed 30, 000 coffee seedlings . Last year, the county distributed 50, 000 seedlings.
Governor Ottichillo distributed 20, 000 seedlings of avocado to farmers. He said the move is aimed at ensuring that farmers in the county tap into the agreement signed between Kenya and China on export of the produce.
He said the county government will help farmers in the formation and management of groups for export of the fruits to China directly without going through middlemen.