FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION TO DEEPEN COOPERATION WITH NANDI COUNTY
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has expressed the willingness to deepen the cooperation with the County Government of Nandi in accelerating development programmes.
FAO representative to Kenya Dr. Tobias Takavarasha, disclosed this when he led national officials on a one day visit to Nandi County.
This was enable them assess the development progress and impact of the Land Governance Programme in Nandi County among other programmes supported by FAO.
The Land Governance Programme is being implemented by FAO in partnership with the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, the National Land Commission (NLC), the National Government and beneficiary County Government’s which include Nandi County funded by the European Union.
While officially receiving the delegation in the County, Deputy Governor Dr. Yulita Mitei, appreciated the partnership Nandi County has enjoyed with FAO in various areas of development and warmly welcomed further cooperation.
Dr. Yulita was particular with the support FAO has offered the County administration in the development of a Geo-spatial Information System (GIS) laboratory that supports the County Government in digitization of records related to land and has greatly influenced in decision making and policy formulation.
Since its launch on May 18 2019, the GIS laboratory has enabled the user departments develop digital data register, which supports better decision making, planning, implementation and monitoring of development projects.
this has driven key interest in land administration, agriculture, natural resources, planning policy and capacity development.
FAO President who was accompanied by Council of Governors representative Ms. Eve Sawe lauded the county administration for adopting the GIS technology and leveraging the facility on prompt decision making in order to ensure effective service delivery.
The visit presented a unique opportunity for the County Government to connect with FAO and establish viable partnerships and support to the County Government on innovations and technology in Food and Agriculture sectors, with Nandi County seen as a potential food basket to help deliver the President’s Big Four Agenda on Food Security.
The team would later visit Kaimosi Agricultural Training Centre ATC where the County Government has partnered with FAO in setting up of a Milk Processing Incubator for Training purposes.
At Kaimosi ATC Mrs. Truphena Jepketer, a beneficiary of the programme gave a testimonial of how the facility has positively imparted her life and that of other women in the society.
“We are indeed grateful to the County Government and FAO for having facilitated our learning on, among other skills, the art of my milk value addition. We can now process Yogurt and Cheese among other milk end products right here in Kaimosi.” said Mrs. Truphena.
The delegation concluded their tour of Nandi by visiting Sireet OEP Tea factory in Nandi Hills for a fact finding mission where they were hosted for an informal lunch meeting by factory Board led by the Chairman. Their discussions centered on ways to strike a working partnership and working together to mutual benefit, particularly to assist smallholder tea farmers diversify, create alternative source of livelihoods and improve on their nutrition.
“A partnership between FAO and Sireet OEP will be an opportunity to work together in a new way,” said Dr Tobias. “Working together with you through FAO is all in our interests and most importantly it will help lead us to defeating mul-nutrition and poverty in this region,” he added.
CECM for Lands, Environment, Water, Natural Resource and Climate Change Dr. Philemon Bureti who accompanied the team appreciated the gesture by FAO to continue supporting and complimenting the county Government initiatives. He reiterated remarks by the Deputy Governor saying that the adoption of the GIS technologies in Nandi brings a lot of transformational data that influences service delivery.
Accordingly to FAO’s representative in Nandi Ms. Linda Achieng, the overall objective of the programme is to improve Food and Nutrition security through equitable and secure access and management of land for better livelihoods and socio-economic development.