Avocado farmers in Kakamega county have launched a cooperative society to guide them on the best farming practices of the produce and in preparation for the county government rollout of a World Bank project aimed at promoting avocado farming in the county.
Speaking during their first AGM, Mumbo Avocado Farmers’ Cooperative Society Chairman Maxwell Shamala said the cooperative was started with the main purpose of promoting the planting of hass avocado seedlings, nurturing them into tress harvesting and marketing of the fruits.
“We realized that the export market was huge and that the local consumption was on the rise,” he said, further stating that there was need to intensify avacado farming for the farmers to realize changes in their financial fortunes.
The chairman pointed out that their main challenge is registering members due to the negative attitudes towards cooperatives as a result of the mismanagement of some cooperatives in the area.
Another challenge has been lack of information on the handsome returns that can be realized from avocado farming. However, over the past six months, they have been able to turn the tide and generate a lot of interest in the fruit farming.
By Andanje Wakhungu
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