A section of tree growers in Laikipia County have offered the government seedlings the national tree planting drive scheduled for Monday as a way of promoting their business.
Speaking in Nanyuki town, the farmers said that they had tree nurseries that were ready for planting and offered the government an opportunity to purchase tree seedlings and in the process uplift their living standards.
“We have tree seedlings that we would like to plant during this rainy season, but we are appealing for government support, aimed at boosting our income and creating job opportunities for our youth,” said Daniel Karanja, a Nanyuki-based tree farmer.
They said they had over 100,000 tree seedlings if bought for the special tree planting holiday next week, would boost their income.
“As a youth, my work entails tree farming for reselling to residents, but now, I call on the government during the upcoming public holiday to purchase and enable me to recoup my capital and support my family,” urged Harison Mundia, another tree farmer in Nanyuki.
The growers also called for capacity building of the residents on how to tend trees, noting that the majority of the people lacked the requisite knowledge on how to nurture trees into maturity.
Meanwhile, Laikipia County Commissioner Joseph Kanyiri has revealed that they target to plant about 4.3 million trees during the Monday holiday, and they were strategizing on how they would achieve this through the engagement of residents at the grassroots level.
“My appeal to residents is to turn up in large numbers for the tree planting exercise; the initiative will be carried out across the county and everyone is encouraged to take part,” he said.
The county commissioner said that it was the government’s commitment to restore degraded lands and combat climate change through tree-planting initiatives, hence the need for partnership from other stakeholders in the county.
Kanyiri further called on ranchers and floriculture farmers in the area to set some sections in their farms for tree planting programmes, a move that he said would see 15 billion tree seedlings planted countrywide by the year 2032 in line with the president’s directive.
By Muturi Mwangi
