Arid area communities urged to adopt irrigation

People living around water pans in Siaya County have been urged to use the water to irrigate their farms, to attain food security.
The County Chief Officer (CO) for Agriculture, Charles Siso, said currently most of the people around the pans used the water for domestic purposes and for livestock.
The CO said the County Government spent at least Sh 3 million annually to rehabilitate or dig new water pans in arid areas, hence the need to diversify their use.
“The County Government’s main objective is to assist people living in arid areas, be food secure and to have a steady income from farming”, said Mr Siso.
He said part of the assistance was the recently introduced programme of distribution of free traditional vegetable seeds, to people with at least one acre of land to spare for the vegetables.
The Chief Officer said priority in the seed’s distribution was given to people living around the four water pans in the County, which are Futro, Sandhof, Nyalnawe and Koga.
He was speaking during the relief seeds distribution in Central Alego Location, Monday.
Each water pan community will receive 25 packets of assorted traditional vegetable seeds, five of the packets being planted on demonstration plots established by the County Government.
By Paul Olale