Governor Wavinya urges farmers to take advantage of early rains to boost food security in Machakos

Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti has urged farmers to take advantage of the early onset of rains and plant in order to enhance food security in the County.

Speaking at Kathaana in Kangundo on Tuesday as she launched the distribution of 74.9 tons of certified seeds to 37,450 farmers across the county, Governor Ndeti said the rains which were expected to start towards the end of March had started early thus farmers could expect good yields if they planted and tilled their crops.

She said the County was gradually moving from being food insecure to an Agricultural powerhouse having been ranked 6th nationally in production of maize last year.

Governor Ndeti asked residents not to rush to sell their farm produce cheaply whenever they had a surplus but store it for future use as the climate had become increasingly unpredictable.

“Take these seeds and plant them with hope. When you succeed, Machakos succeeds,” she told the farmers.

She said majority of residents rely on farming and that is why the County government had come up with initiatives to support farmers.

Wavinya noted that the distributed certified seeds are pest resistant, climate resilient for higher yields, and will be planted on over 7000 acres of land with expected yield of over 93,800 bags.

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She added that farming in Machakos had faced various challenges including climate change, high cost of production and market accessibility, reiterating that the County Government has mapped climate conditions across the County and was distributing appropriate seeds for each climatic area.

“In order to ensure maximum impact for this program we have mapped the climate conditions for each area. For areas with high rainfall we will give maize and beans, for drier areas we will give cowpeas and pigeon peas,” she said.

The Governor said timing was everything in farming and ordered that the seeds reach farmers across the county within 48 hours, noting that the agriculture department was now well staffed with qualified officers who could advise farmers accordingly.

She revealed that her government had registered 200,000 farmers for subsidized fertilizers and asked those who had not registered to do so.

The County government recently hired 39 extension officers domiciled at Ward level.

She appealed to residents to take advantage of the rains to plant more trees and grass for livestock feeding as well as dig terraces to harvest water.

By Gastone Valusi

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