County trains supervisors to oversee Farmers' registration exercise

Kiambu

August 30th, 2023

KNA by Grace Naishoo

In a bid to ensure a successful second phase of farmers’ registration, the Department of Agriculture in Kiambu County has trained supervisors to oversee the county-wide digital registration of farmers expected to start on September 1, 2023.

The three-day training that ended on Tuesday included supervisors from all the wards in the county, who were trained on how to operate the Kenya Integrated Agriculture Management Information System (KIAMIS) an innovative digital platform used to facilitate the registration of farmers

Apart from registering farmers, the digital platform will also provide e-extension, credit management, and mechanisation services by the Government and counties for effective service delivery and improved agricultural productivity.

The country-wide second phase of farmers' registration exercise is being scaled up to all regions after the government yielded a successful pilot farmers' registration exercise early this year.

The exercise follows a presidential directive on the creation of a digitized national farmer registration that will be key to ensuring the smooth distribution of subsidized fertilizer for farmers countrywide

According to a report by the Ministry of Agriculture, the government registered a total of 4.3 million farmers in the first phase and targets to register 5 million more in the next phase  

During the launch of the second phase of the farmer registration exercise in Nairobi last month, Carla Mucavi, FAO Representative in Kenya, noted the significant contribution of information technology to agricultural production. She said KIAMIS will support effective and efficient service delivery and boost agricultural food production, which is currently being negatively affected by climate change.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the program is set to continue until the onset of the long rains in 2023 and until such a time when food prices in the country will be stable and fertilizer prices affordable.

This measure is predicated on the recognition county’s Vision 2030 which puts high agricultural productivity as one of the key drivers to achieving 100 percent national food and nutrition security

Courtesy ; K. N. A