Posted on March, 8, 2019 at 09:56 am
Lydiah Nyawira
Counties will carry out a programme to register all farmers within their counties to help gather data on agriculture.
During the sixth annual devolution conference in Kirinyaga County yesterday, The Food Agricultural Organisation (FAO) representative in Kenya Robert Allport presented a report dubbed Counties that Count; Status of agriculture.
The report which is modeled on a programmearried out in Zambia, proposes that farmers be registered in the counties.
Farmers will also be issued with smart vouchers which they can use to procure farm inputs and access subsidies from the Government.
From the report’s proposal, farmers will only be issued with seeds varieties, and farm inputs that are suitable for their farms
Success chances
“This will guarantee high chances of success for them as they will only receive the right seeds for their farms,” Mr Allport stated.
The farmers will also access mechanisation services which will be made possible through the vouchers, and allow those practicing conservation agriculture to do so without a lot of costs.
Farmers will also benefit from the programme through access to credit as their projects will link them to financial institutions.
“One of the challenges for farmers in accessing credit is that they do not have a credit score. And therefore, financial institutions refuse to advance them credit,” Allport explained.
“This project will give the farmers credit scores that can be used to prove their credit worthiness in a bank.”
In addition to this, farmers will also have access to E-extension services that are tailor made for them.
According to the proposal, their data will be available to the extension services officers on the ground.
Available data
“Targeted advice will ensure that farmers get what they need and what is best for them and their farms. Their data will be on hand and it will be updated regularly,” Allport said.
Council of Governors Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya said the proposal would be adopted by counties and the national government, with assistance from development partners such as FAO.
Source: Standard Digital