The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has donated two tractors worth Kes14 million to Bungoma County to help improve the delivery of extension services.
The tractors, acquired at Kes 7 million each, will be used to till farms at a subsidised fee.
Bungoma County Deputy Governor Jenipher Mbatiany commended FAO for its efforts in modernizing Bungoma’s agricultural sector and appealed to farmers to form SACCOs to make it easier to work collectively rather than individually.
She said SACCOs will enable them to pool resources and ease access to government services.
On her part, Bungoma County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for agriculture, fisheries, livestock and cooperatives development Monica Fedha indicated that Bungoma is currently facing food insecurity, having harvested less than two million bags of maize last harvest season against a projected harvest of 3.7 million bags.
She lauded FAO for taking steps to ensure that Bungoma has enough food to sustain the county and supporting the County’s agriculture projects, including global action for controlling armyworms, being the regional centre for controlling armyworms.
Further, she also pointed out the county government's efforts in beefing up food security by rolling out an initiative tagged farm input programme in 2013 that gives out 50 kilograms of planting and top dresser and 10 kilograms of seeds.
“This year, 21,900 farmers benefited from the programme which is an efficient way to curb food insecurity as the beneficiaries will harvest a total of 400,000 bags, thereby reducing the food insecurity gap.” she stated.
She further urged farmers to diversify farming and embrace the initiative by Governor Kenneth Lusaka termed ‘operation fuga kuku’ to rear chickens and take advantage of Chwele slaughterhouse as a market for the chicken to eradicate poverty and hunger in Bungoma.
