The Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Cooperatives and Fisheries in Kakamega is seeking to present a Bill to the County Assembly to streamline funding and curb duplication of roles by partners in the agricultural sector.
According to the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Agriculture Benjamin Adama, the move will help in increasing efficiency, transparency and accountability.
The CECM made the remarks on Monday during the launch of a campaign in Kakamega being spearheaded by The United States of America International Development Agency (USAID) Funded –Feed the Future Kenya Crops and Dairy Market Systems (KCDMS) and other partners to sensitize small-holder farmers on the importance of soil testing for improved agricultural productivity.
He noted that while the sector has been receiving lots of funding from various donors and partners, there was a lot of duplication of roles, hence the need to streamline the sector.
Mr Adama revealed that the County Government has received funding from the World Bank to employ 1,000 enumerators to register all farmers in a move that will help strengthen the agricultural extension service.
“We are working with the World Bank to have data of all farmers in the county so that it’s easy to know the value chain they are engaged in and therefore know the kind of intervention they need,” he said.
The CECM said the agricultural sector offers opportunities in fertilizer production, saying there is potential for the development of organic fertilizer plants to use the by-products from the sugar sub-sector.
He urged farmers to test their soils in order to establish the soils’ acidity or alkalinity levels (pH) in order to adopt better farming inputs to increase yields.
By George Kaiga
