Meru County has kicked off a three-day participatory Scenario Planning Worksop which is majorly meant to guide farmers during the upcoming October-December rainy season.
The workshop is organised by the Kenya Meteorological Department with the sponsorship of SNV, a not-for-profit international development organisation founded in the Netherlands nearly 50 years ago, through Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) project.
Speaking during the official opening of the workshop, Meru County Agriculture, livestock development and fisheries Executive Dr Faith Mwende said the workshop and general engagement of various stakeholders during the forum comes at the right time considering that the long rains were around the corner.
She said the majority of farmers in the County and Kenya at large lack proper information on climate issues and as a result end up not carrying out the right agricultural practices.
“It is due to lack of enough and proper information about climatic issues that farmers are not aware of the type of crops to plant during a given season depending on the amount of rain.”
“Consequently, we end up having crop failure or even post-harvest losses, all of which lead to food insecurity in the country,” Dr Mwende said.
She exuded confidence that the workshop will enable stakeholders to get the requisite information that will be eventually shared with farmers in order to make informed decisions on their farming practices.
County Commissioner Jacob Ouma said the workshop was vital considering that weather focus influences various activities in day-to-day lives and as a result the stakeholders should take the forum seriously considering the rainy season was approaching.
“There are great expectations from the forum, especially from the end result of various discussions based on different weather forecast methods which will culminate to good advisories to the residents,” said Mr Ouma.
He said the workshop’s outcome will enable farmers to know which crops to grow in a given time as opposed to maize and beans as is a norm in the county.
Meteorological Application Services Deputy Director Ms Mary Githinji said the meteorological department’s mandate is usually to produce weather focus which is later used to carry out participatory scenario planning in specific counties.
She said the counties, once they receive the focus, are supposed to tailor-make it in order to make it useful for people in that area.
“Participatory Scenario Planning can be used to predict the proper onset date for the season and get to know what, when and how to grow a given crop,” said Ms Githinji.
By Dickson Mwiti
