The county government of Kakamega will spend Sh120 million to complete the setting up of dairy smart farms across 8 sub-counties in the region under the food security and economic sustenance pillar.
The money has been set aside under the 2022/2023 Financial Year and will be handed over to the Kakamega Dairy Development Corporation-KDDC whose mandate was to establish and manage 12 Dairy Smart farms, one each across all the 12 sub-counties in the region.
This is the second phase of the programme after the first phase which took off in 2015 in four sub-counties.
The objective is to have all 12 sub-counties installed with the smart farms before the end of the year.
Under the program, each smart farm receives 25 high-quality dairy cows which are to be managed effectively both for returns and as learning centres for learning institutions and empowering local communities.
According to Kakamega governor Fernandez Barasa, the Smart farms are to serve as a centre of excellence for heifer multiplication and milk production to support milk processing centres.
“They will also be utilized for practical training of county polytechnic students, schools and farmers in the dairy production industry," said Barasa.
Currently, the complete process of the Kakamega Dairy Plant in the Malava sub-county is underway and is projected to commence operations in 2024 and subsequently create a market for milk farmers in the county.
Barasa said the County Government has further allocated Sh10 Million for the provision of Artificial Insemination (AI) Services to farmers for improved cattle breeds.
“To improve the success rate for the 1400 inseminations per month, we will continue to purchase high quality and well-researched seeds to reduce repeat cases,” he said.
The governor said the great emphasis is being put on disease surveillance and control to reduce the high influx of diseases witnessed in the recent past.
“The county carries annual vaccination against foot and mouth disease, lumpy skin disease, Rabies, black quarter and Anthrax,” added Barasa.
So far, the KDDC has established and operationalized four dairy smart farms in Lurambi, Matungu, Lugari and Khwisero sub-counties.
At the moment, all four operational farms have a total of 123 animals.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of KDDC Isaac Lubutsi, the four active farms account for 234,000 litres of Kakamega County’s annual milk production.
Lubutsi says the dairy smart farms will play a key role in the dairy sector in support of the One Cow Initiative Program where the county government has so far distributed 1,790 dairy cows to beneficiary farmers since 2015.
“So far the one cow Initiative Program has led to an increase in livestock population in the county from 147,720 in 2016 to 177,578 in 2021 with a 39 per cent increase in milk production from 131.7million litres in 2015 to 182.6million in 2021,” says Lubutsi.