The government through the Regional Pastoral Livelihoods Resilience Project (RPLRP) has used Sh. 171 Million to build livestock markets and water boreholes aimed at supporting livestock farmers in Narok County.
Speaking during the commissioning of Ngoswani Livestock Market in Narok West Sub County Friday, the Agriculture Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Linah Jebii Kilimo said a total of seven boreholes and six livestock markets had been installed in the county to boost the pastoralists’ community.
Ms. Kilimo recalled that the project is funded by World Bank to improve the economic standards of the residents who entirely depend on livestock for their livelihood.
At the same time, the CAS commissioned 700,000 dozes of livestock drugs that will be given to farmers in a bid to prevent livestock diseases.
The drugs given are to 300,000 dozes to fight Contagious Bovine Pleuro Pneumonia (CBPP) for cattle, 200,000 dozes to fight Contagious Caprine Pleuro Pneumonia (CCPP) for goats and 400,000 dozes for Peste Des Petits Ruminants (PPR) (PPR) sheep and goat.
The CAS was accompanied by Livestock Principal Secretary Harry Kimutai, Narok Governor Samuel Tunai, Narok County Commissioner Evans Achoki and the country’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative Ms. Carla Mukavi.
PS Kimutai said the RPLRP project has been in existence for the last seven years and had been extended for nine more months because of the Covid-19 pandemic that forced many people to remain at home to keep the disease at bay.
“The project is expected to end in December this year. However, we are satisfied that the work already done on the ground will go a long way in boosting the residents’ livelihood,” he said.
Kimutai called on the County government to continue supporting the projects by putting in place a functioning board that will ensure the projects are successful.
“We are now handing over the projects to the county government to take over and maintain these programmes in order to bear fruits for future generations,” said the PS.
The PS observed that due to the increasing number of livestock in the area, the markets could be very small to accommodate all the animals brought for sale urging the county government to increase the number of market days for the sale of livestock to reduce congestion.
Governor Tunai lauded the projects saying he has always worked closely with the National government to benefit the locals.
“The county government has allocated a lot of resources to boost the livestock farmers. In the year 2018, the county bought 30 bulls that were given to every ward to boost their breed,” said Tunai.
He urged the pastoralist community to slowly shift from keeping hundreds of livestock to keeping few productive animals.
“You get someone from this county having 500 heads of cattle but very little milk. It is time to shift to few productive animals because the population is growing and land demarcated hence no place to graze the huge stock,” reiterated Tunai.
by Ann Salaton
