The government has established embryo transfer facilities and goat artificial insemination centres aimed at improving animal breeds in the country to boost farmers’ incomes.
Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura, has said that the Livestock sub-sector had deployed modern agriculture risk management instruments such as crop and livestock insurance schemes and commodity market instruments, meant to ensure that farming was profitable.
“In the past 23 months the centres have produced about 1 million doses of bull semen and 50,000 dose straws of buck semen, while 35 semen import permits were approved moving 297,027 doses of semen and 416 embryos,” he added noting that the move was meant to ensure that farming was profitable.
Speaking to the media during the weekly press briefing, Mwaura said that more than 400,000 litres of liquid nitrogen were also produced and 950 sires evaluated out of which 638 were approved and 312 rejected for non-compliance.
The spokesperson added that the government had also engaged 1,128 veterinary interns to give technical support to farmers at the county level.
Livestock feeds, too, have been subsidized through duty waiver and the exemption of the 16 percent VAT raw materials alongside distribution of 8,900 Kilogrammes of seed for pasture production. This, he said, had led to stabilized prices and availability of animal feeds and improved availability of livestock feeds more so, in the dry ASAL areas.
“Dairy Value Chain Development was enhanced with mapping of 265 sites in 34 counties for milk cooler installation and provision of 200 dairy goats to multiplication centres. With mapping having been completed, 220 milk coolers are scheduled to be installed to address post-harvest losses in milk production, “he added.
The livestock sector has also witnessed an improvement in the meat value chain, with construction of two feedlots in Kibiru (Meru) and Hadado (Wajir) being at 80 and 20 percent completion.
“This is being complemented with provision of sheep and goats to multiplication centres and elite breeders in Kenya Livestock Commercialization Project (KELCOP) project areas for enhanced livestock production.
KELCOP project has also enabled the drilling of seven boreholes and installed them with solar power, in addition to provision of water pans in Siaya and Samburu counties. The project also saw boreholes drilled in Marsabit, Samburu, Baringo, Siaya and Elgeyo Marakwet Counties.
Some 138,679 pastoralists were supported in livestock insurance and 503,480 Tropical Livestock Unit (TLUs) were covered under the De-Risking, Inclusion and Value Enhancements of Pastoral Economies (DRIVE) program with the aim of enhancing resilience of the pastoralists
Through the Bottom-up Economic Transformational Agenda (BETA) the Kenya Kwanza administration is keen on investing in agriculture as the sector that will lead the economic recovery predicated on four factors of; Cost of Living, Job Creation, Poverty Reduction and Income Generation.
Extreme poverty and vulnerability, Mwaura said, was a big challenge that has faced Kenyans for years, majority of those affected being farmers, who lacked resources to raise productivity to meet their subsistence needs and thus a vast majority of them are unable to meet daily food requirements.
By Anne Sabuni
