Farmers benefit from County subsidy

Farmers in Elgeyo Marakwet will benefit from a Ksh 16 million County subsidy program aimed at improving food production and generating income to the residents.

Already more than a million seedlings of tea, 200,000 coffee seedlings and about 50,000 avocado seedlings have been distributed across the county under.

Governor Alex Tolgos said the County government will support farmers willing to venture into horticulture and dairy farming owing to its profitability compared to maize farming which has seen its earnings dwindle over the years.

The Governor also asked residents in the county to venture into growing macadamia trees because of its nuts rising global demand.

“We urge every family to grow at least five trees of macadamia trees. From our calculations, we have established that after three years, a farmer can earn about Ksh 15,000 thousand from one tree.That translates to Ksh 75,000 a year from the five trees,” he said.

He said with the help of development partners, the county targets to have farmers grow more than 100,000 trees of macadamia this year. The County is partnering with Slovak government and TenSenses who will provide seeds and market for the produce respectively.

Farmers from Kokwao Cooperative Society are among the beneficiaries of the project where over 30 tonnes of seeds have also been distributed to farmers across the county. Last week, the county distributed tomato seeds to the cooperative of more than 500 members in Emsoo Ward, Keiyo North Sub County.

Deputy Governor Wisley Rotich during the exercise urged farmers to join cooperatives so that they could benefit collectively through the sale of their produce by ridding out brokers. Cooperative chair Mathew Kwambai thanked the County Government for the support.

“We are glad we received more than 800 sachets of tomato seeds and 11 knapsacked sprayers. I promise that our members will deliver,” he said.

The county also offered subsidised Artificial Insemination (AI) which has seen more than 19,000 inseminations with success rate of over 80 percent achieved.