Uasin Gishu County was awarded the second-best county cup in the implementation of the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP) having been rated on implementation and meeting agreed milestones.
The county was awarded the runners up cup during the recently concluded 6th Implementation Support Mission between the World Bank and the participating 24 County Governments nationally.
The World Bank project aims at increasing agricultural productivity and resilience to climate change risks.
Speaking while receiving the trophy and certificate from the Departmental Chief Officers, the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of Agriculture, Livestock Development and Fisheries Samuel Yego welcomed the project as it seeks to counter climate change.
“The implementation of the project was evaluated based on the number of technologies, innovations, and management practices cascaded to farmers for adoption to deal with climate change and our Government has achieved that, managing to be crowned second,” said Yego.
He further noted that direct beneficiaries, efficient utilization of funds, rate of project completion, compliance to the environment and social issues and county compliance to the signed participatory agreements are among the indicators used in the ranking.
Agriculture chief officer Julius Rotich said Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project has done well in the implementation of micro-projects in the six wards that include Kapkures, Kipsomba, Tulwet/Chuiyat, Kapsoya and Ainabkoi/Olare reaching out to over 12,000 farmers through training and project grants.
The project is also supporting a number of Cooperatives to improve marketing of farmers’ produce and value addition with the priority value chains being those of dairy, Irish potatoes and indigenous poultry, according to Livestock development and fisheries chief officer Dr Victoria Tarus.
By Brigid Ngelese and Kiptanui cherono
