Nakuru County Government has distributed 725,000 pyrethrum seedlings to over 132 farmers in Njoro sub-county to increase the acreage of the crop in the county.
Njoro Sub-County Crops Officer, Stephen Kamau said the distribution was done in collaboration with Agriculture Sector Development Support Programme (ASDSP).
The officer said the pyrethrum revival scheme’s aim was to achieve 10,000 acres of pyrethrum across the county before the end of the year.
Speaking at the Lare ward in the sub county today, Kamau said today’s issuance of seedlings targeted, Mau-Narok and Mauche wards, and added they were delighted by the positive response from the farmers.
He noted that pyrethrum farming will be a major source of employment in the county and urged young farmers to embrace it instead of leaving it to the elderly farmers.
A first-time farmer from Mauche Paul Korir said he wants to plant three acres because he believes the flowers will provide his family with a sustainable income, and appealed to other farmers in the area to embrace it to improve the livelihoods of many households in the ward.
Kamau said before the collapse of pyrethrum farming in the mid-1990s the county was the leading producer, and the defunct Pyrethrum Board of Kenya downfall did not only disappoint the farmers but, went under with millions of farmers’ unpaid revenues.
The revival of pyrethrum farming has been a flagship project for Governor Lee Kinyanjui, who has always emphasised the capacity of the crop to change the economic status of farmers in the county.
By Veronica Bosibori
