A farmer waters vegetables in a farm. Equity Group commits Kshs20bn for to medium sized farmers
Equity Group Foundation through its Agriculture Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme is committing Ksh20 billion in the next five years in a plan to transform farming into commercial ventures through loans to medium-sized farmers. The funding seeks to benefit farmers with 10-100 acres to turn farming into serious commercial enterprises in order to enhance food security and bridge the annual deficit.
Linking smallholders to markets: pilot study on developing value chains for conserving local biodiversity and improving diets
Katamakisi Kadumutu, a women group from Okatekok, a village in Teso-South Sub County, Busia County was one of the identified entrepreneurial farmer group for production and marketing of the African Leafy Vegetables (ALVs). The group consists of 24 members (20 women, 4 men).
Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana tastes Makueni Milk after commissioning the dairy plant
Makueni County has commissioned a dairy plant, Kikima Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society, which will have a capacity to process and back 300 litres and 6,600 litres in a day.
The brand dubbed Makueni Fresh milk becomes the first dairy product to be processed in the county after Governor Kivutha Kibwana opened the Sh25 million plant in Mbooni sub-County.
Makueni produces 18 million litres of milk annually against a demand of 340 million litres which guarantees market for Makueni Fresh. Meanwhile mango farmers in the county will now enjoy the fruits of their labour after the governor opened a fruit processing plant to process season’s mango harvest.
The processing plant will curb 40 percent of post-harvest fruit waste that farmers used to grapple with in the past by making and preserving mango puree.
A national aquaculture curriculum has been launched to promote, boost and sustain farming of tilapia in fish ponds within the catchment areas of L Victoria, and outspreading countrywide.
The modular curriculum which will be offered in various vocational training institutions, polytechnics and colleges throughout the country, is part of joint efforts to sustain the declining fish population in L Victoria, enhance sustainable ways to protect the lake’s environment and eradicate poverty by creating alternate livelihoods other than lake fishing.
The curriculum which is part of the Trilateral Tilapia Cooperation, is a combined product Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, the German Development Cooperation Agency, through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV).
It is also backed by the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) seeks to promote competency based hands-on training (CBET) to enable fish farmers fully benefit from it.
The first phase focused on 10 counties in the Western Kenya region, with the second phase focusing on up-scaled lessons learnt from phase one, and implemented in Kakamega, Bungoma and Siaya Counties.
Agriculture being the backbone of Kenya’s economy contributes 24 per cent of the countries annual GDP, fisheries contribute 7.4 percent of this hence the need for harnessing the fisheries resources.
PASGR Executive Director, Prof Tade Aina(left) and CABE Research Associate, Lucy Adoyo during the stakeholder forum on youth employment creation in agriculture and agro-processing held in Nairobi.
On December 7, Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) in collaboration Center for African Bio-Entrepreneurship (CABE) held a stakeholder mapping forum to discuss youth employment in agriculture and agro-processing in Kenya. This was done using the Utafiti Sera (Research-Policy Community) approach that provides a platform for policy engagement. The forum that attracted farmers, county official representatives, academia and private sector from the agriculture discussed on various ways of making agriculture a viable business opportunity.
