German based organization, GIZ, has embarked on an aggressive capacity building efforts to boost bee keeping in Turkana County.
The County’s bee keeping potential is largely untapped and GIZ is committed to change this situation.
Throughout this week, the Organization has been distributing educational materials to enable bee keepers to increase their production and access markets.
As part of the efforts, GIZ County Programme Coordinator, Flora Kanga, led his team in donating copies of Technical and Economic Viability study of honey production and Marketing that would provide an evidence-based road map for beekeeping and honey production potentiality in Turkana County.
The materials donated through the Technical Cooperation Facility (TCF) project were received by County Executive for Agriculture, Pastoral Economy and Fisheries George Emoru.
They included copies of Basic Manual for beekeepers, targeting Community-lead trainers (TOTs), at the Community level as well as Honey Processing and Marketing Strategy for Turkana County.
CECM Emoru appreciated the donation of the training materials and acknowledged GIZ’s immense support on livelihoods related activities that are meant to uplift the welfare of the targeted communities.
He assured the partners of the department readiness to collaborate with them to strengthen the honey value chain and change fortune for the bee enterprise in Turkana that he said its potential had not been tapped fully.
The County Executive underscored the need by stakeholders from the Government and private sector to increase campaign awareness on the viability of the sector to change the traditional notion that the enterprise was for the lowly and poor people in the Turkana community.
County Chief Officer for Livestock Production and Veterinary Services, Abdullahi Yusuf, described GIZ organization as a serious partner that has hugely invested towards realization of the County Government’s agenda on food security.
Livestock Production Director, Bobby Ekadon, called for commercialization of the honey value chain while his Veterinary Services counterpart Dr. Benson Longor said the manuals would boost the existing strategy on honey production.
By Peter Gitonga
