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Governor Sang inspecting coffee berries at Seiyot Farmers Cooperative Society in Tindiret Sub County.Photo/GPS

Nandi Governor Stephen Sang has asked farmers in the county to take coffee farming seriously after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed deal with China last year.

Sang spoke  when he inspected several development projects in Tindiret Sub County.Tindiret in the county is well known for coffee growing.

However Sang said more need to be done in order to recruit more farmers to practice coffee farming through cooperative societies.

This, he said, will help in increasing their economies of scale hence more returns in the market.

“Last year I was part of the delegation that went with the president to China where he signed an agreement for our products to be sold in China. He signed a deal for coffee, tea, academia and other products,” Sang said at Seiyot Farmers Cooperative Society.

Already the county has distributed over 10,000 coffee seedlings and 200kg of coffee seeds to cooperative societies in the county.

“The county is focused on strengthening cooperative societies through availing to them necessary support for their growth. It is through such cooperative that we will be able to empower our farmers as we seek to fully venture into agri-business,” He added.

“We will distribute more seeds and seedlings to farmers through cooperative socities.My focus is to turn this region into one of the leading coffee producing areas in our country,” He said.

Many farmers growing coffee in the region are old but Sang want youth to be incorporated into the business for livelihood improvement.

“I want to also ask you parents to allow youth a portion on your land so that they can also plant coffee. This will ensure that they are economic independent and everybody at the end get income to pay schools fee and other expenses,” said sang.

According to Sang, he will work on the formulation of policy framework together with the county assembly to see to it that they consolidate the county’s market for the produce so that they can be able to export to overseas markets.

Today, an association of tea farmers and other stakeholders in the industry held a consultative meeting with senior officials from the Cooperative Development department in an effort to find solutions to the challenges ailing the tea sector.

Tea farmers had an opportunity to engage and air their grievances bedevilling them to the CECM Agriculture & Cooperative Development Dr Kiplimo Araap Lagat, CO Cooperative Development Dr. Benedette Tiony, CO Agriculture Mr. Wilson Lelei and Director Cooperative Development Mr. Stalin Koech.

Some of the challenges highlighted by the farmers include high cost of production, poor governance among cooperatives, tea hawking where brokers continue to use information asymmetry to farmers disadvantage among others.

CECM Agriculture and Cooperative Development Dr, Kiplimo Lagat giving his remarks. {PHOTO COURTESY}

Dr Lagat reaffirmed his commitment to address and fix the problems in the industry once and for all in the interest of the tea farmers.

“We want to work with Sacco(s), cooperatives and societies hand in hand to fix the challenges faced by members”.

CO for Cooperatives Dr. Tiony agreed with Dr Lagat saying that societies need to fix the gaps of governance in their respective cooperative if they want to prosper.”

Chief Officer Cooperative Development Dr. Benedette Tiony

Mr. Lelei who is the CO in charge of Agriculture said that one of the solutions to the problems being faced by the sector can be addressed through introduction of a subsidy program that would see farmers get inputs at affordable prices.

Tea farming in Nandi is an important sector of the economy hence the need to support the sector that employs thousands of our residents and generates a lot of revenue to our county.#TransformingNandi

The Dairy sector in Nandi received a major boost today after the national Government delivered a milk cooler worth KES8.5M commissioned by the deputy president during the realignment of Government’s ‘Big Four Agenda’ on 24th September.

A lorry offloading the newly acquired milk cooler

A 3000 litres capacity milk cooler was delivered to Meteitei Dairy Cooperative Society which has a membership of over 300 farmers.

The County Government has set aside KES30M to support 30 cooperatives across the county to set up a structure that will host similar coolers.

Already a team from the department of Agriculture and Cooperative Development is visiting proposed milk cooling sites to assess and ascertain them before contractors move to site.

This is a milestone to both levels of governments as it complements the National Government’s Big Four Agenda on food security as well as the county’s vision to set up the first milk processing plant in the county.

#TransformingNandi

The county government of Nandi is in close partnership with Red Cross society of Kenya in finding the possible disaster mitigation strategies. It is one of the counties that are vulnerable to more forms of disasters. In the recent past, some parts of the county like Tinderet, Aldai, Nandi hills and some parts of Chesumei have been adversely affected by landslides and mudslides as a result of heavy rains experienced as from March 2018. This has resulted in the socio-economic impact of the same in terms of loss of life and property, transport inconvenience and disruption of infrastructure and communication.

During a meeting with the red cross concerning shelter reconstruction.

This phenomenon (landslides and mud slides) is exacerbated by increased precipitation and decreased counter forces due to depletion of vegetation cover and human activities. It occurs when a large amount of water causes the rapid erosion of soil on a steep slope. Settlement and resultant human activity on steep slopes compounds the situation and puts human life and property at risk during periods of heavy rain. Both short term and long term mitigation strategies are put in place to solve the current state problems and prevent future occurrences.

Following post mud-slide assessment, some households that were severely damaged need to be constructed to enable owners settle to their farms. The team comprising of members from Red cross society and Nandi county disaster management have gone ahead to map and identify the households that were severely affected by the mudslides. They have also reassessed the suitability of the reconstruction and managed to identify 23 households (13 in Tinderet, 6 in Nandihills and 4 in Aldai subcounties) as beneficiaries of shelter reconstruction by the Red Cross Society. The community member were given the opportunity to decide on the type and design of house they wanted. Having discussed with the beneficiaries, it was agreed that safer grounds to be identified for the reconstruction of a three roomed mud house with iron sheet roof, a concrete floor plan and separate set of washrooms. A sample house structure has already been constructed whereas the whole process is set to be completed before end of November. The community is therefore encouraged to take charge and support this project.

The team also came up with strategies to be implemented so as to reduce such landslide related dangers. These strategies are; policies governing land and vegetation management, good slope management practices, safe shelter awareness, implementation of vegetation management program, adopt appropriate farming practices, evaluate slope nourishment, develop monitoring systems and tools, making routine observation and assessment of slope conditions to ascertain its stability, advice on settlement along the slopes and civic education on disaster preparedness and management.

Sample shelter reconstructed by red cross and county disaster management team.

Nandi County like other counties, has always been vulnerable to more forms of disasters which need rapid response in order to avoid massive destruction of lives and property. Therefore, the county government of Nandi will soon be establishing of a full combat County Disaster Action Unit. This unit should be able to do comprehensive hazard mapping and zoning on all risk places in the County as well as developing Contingency plans and coordinate all the emergency response for any hazardous occurrences within the County as a way of ensuring safety for the citizens.

By Cornelius Kipkoech Chebwaai.

Plans to establish the first ever milk processing factory in Nandi has kicked off after the County Government of Nandi begun to hold a series of consultative meetings with dairy stakeholders in the county to lay down all the necessary strategies.

In a consultative meeting held in Kapsabet with all the Dairy Cooperative Societies in Nandi on Tuesday, Nandi Governor Stephen Sang said the County government has allocated 115 Million shillings in the 2018/2019 financial year towards the establishment of the milk processing plant and the process of building the factory and acquisition of machines will begin before the end of this year.

However, Governor sang lamented that low volumes of milk being produced currently could adversely affect the 200,000 Capacity factory once it is operational.

Sang said the current capacity of milk produced stands at 51,000 Litres only and there were need for the farmers to improve the productivity to meet the capacity of the processing plant.

The county boss said the his administration will  continue to work tirelessly  to ensure that the daily milk production targets are met as the construction of the milk factory gets underway citing the already running Artificial Insemination program as one of the ambitious interventions by his government to ensure that high quality livestock breeds are sired for the dairy farmers.

On the other hand, Dairy farmers lauded governor Sang’s efforts to transform the County’s Agriculture sector pledging to put together their efforts to ensure the success of the Value Addition Strategies laid down by his government.

It is estimated that nearly 17,000 households in Nandi practice small scale dairy farming with an Avarage milk production standing at a paltry 3Litres per household.

Nandi’s finest and 3000M Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto won Kenya a second Gold Medal in the ongoing Africa Athletics Championships in Asaba, Nigeria. Nandi County prides in nurturing world’s best athletics that has continuously lifted Kenya’s banner high in the world of athletics.

#SourceOfChampions

“Value addition plays a key role in ensuring food security, which is one of the Big Four Agenda, is achieved. This is the reason we have prioritized the establishment of a milk processing plant so that dairy farmers can get maximum value from their produce and improve their fortunes. My administration has also intensified capacity building and training of farmers geared towards transformation from subsistence to commercial dairy farming.” Governor Stephen Sang