In Narok County, the ongoing National Household Farmers Registration effort that began early this year has enrolled about 98,600 farmers.

PHOTO | COURTESY Narok County Commissioner Isaac Masinde at his Narok office

According to Isaac Masinde, a commissioner for Narok County, the figure represented 54% of the county's farmers; the 2019 census revealed roughly 181,000 farmers there.

Masinde urged farmers to sign up and volunteer with the Assistant Chiefs to receive government-subsidized farm inputs.

"In comparison to the total number of farmers in the county, the number of registered farmers needs to be improved. Whether farming on a small or large scale, we want all farmers to register with the assistant chief of the region they operate in, he said.

PHOTO | COURTESY Potato harvesting in Narok

He emphasized that only registered farmers would receive government subsidies because they would submit their applications for inputs via a digital network.

The CC said that the State Department of Crops had started the registration process to create a reliable National Database of all farmers.

The 193 assistant chiefs in the county, according to Masinde, have been given tablets on which they can enter information about the farmers under their control.

For the government to provide adequate subsidies and other farm inputs for enhanced productivity and profitability to achieve food security, he urged the farmers to respect the exercise.

The information, he claimed, "would assist the government in reaching out to the precise farmers following their particular needs, so benefiting all the country's farmers.

Digitization is one of the responsibilities of the Kenywa Kwanza government. It is among their 2022 campaign agenda as the president and his Kenya Kwanza government want to solve the drought issue once and for all.

The digitization began this year with the county administrators tasked to register farmers countrywide to ensure that they benefit from their produce, mainly the government's subsidiaries and payments from the government as well