FAO project to support 1,000 households affected by drought in Makueni

Makueni

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

KNA by Patrick Nyakundi

At least 1,000 households affected by drought in Makueni County will benefit from the Emergency Drought Intervention Project - Livelihood Support to Vulnerable Communities in Kenya being spearheaded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The project that will run for one year starting July 2023, will provide interventions in livestock feed and health, agro pastoral and social behaviour change and nutrition.

Under livestock feed and health, 500 households are targeted to receive range pellets where each household will get 5 bags of 50 kgs besides having their animals dewormed and vaccinated during the period under review.

“A total of 2,500 bags of 50 kgs of pellets will be issued to the households. The animals will be dewormed and vaccinated since the livestock tend to have a high load of worms after a prolonged drought,” said FAO Cluster Liaison Officer Mr. James Opiyo during a Special County Steering Group (CSG) meeting co-chaired by Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior and Makueni County Commissioner (CC) Kaburu Kaimba in a hotel in Wote on Tuesday.

Also, Opiyo said that under the agro pastoral intervention, 500 households would receive a package of agricultural inputs like fertilizer and seeds for sorghum, maize, green grams and beans besides getting assorted vegetables like spinach, collards and black night shed.

“We shall give farmers fertilizer of 25 kgs (23:23:0) for cereals and foliar (liquid fertilizer) 100mls for kitchen garden establishment besides helping them in land preparation using smart agriculture-ripping (cut only where seed is planted to help in harvesting water),” said the Liaison Officer.

On the social behaviour change and nutrition, 500 households will be treated for malnutrition besides receiving training on issues to do with kitchen garden equipment to avert them from falling back to their former state.

Some of the needy and vulnerable beneficiaries will come from Mtito Andei, Kikumbulyo South and North, Masongaleni, Ivingoni/Nzambani, Thange and parts of Kimakiu wards in the county.

Opiyo disclosed that 1,000 households will also receive unconditional cash transfer of Sh15,000 as first tranche in October and a similar amount in December 2023 to cushion them from the effects of the drought.

He disclosed that the programme has been funded by the Norway government to the tune of 1.5 million dollars and the assistance will go to five counties in the country.

Opiyo added that the assistance follows the findings done in March under the short rains assessment where 157,000 households were found to be food insecure.

Other counties benefiting from the programme are Kitui, Mandera, Wajir and West Pokot.

 It should be noted that FAO will work closely with the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) that is coordinating, Agriculture, Livestock and Health departments that will implement the programme on the ground.

On his part, Kaimba lauded FAO and NDMA for the assistance to the stressed community saying this would go a long way in alleviating their suffering.

“This assistance will go a long way in alleviating the communities suffering and help build resilience,” said Kaimba.

On subsidised fertilizer, the administrator reminded wananchi that the fertilizer is in all national Cereals Produce Board (NCPB) and urged them to go and collect in an effort to plant crops to increase food production.

“I urge members of the public to take advantage of the subsidised fertilizer in our NCPB and plant crops early and increase crop production hence improve food security in the county,” he said.

Speaking in the same meeting, Governor Mutula said that the distribution of either farm inputs or social behaviour change interventions should be diversified to different beneficiaries.

On her part, Makueni County NDMA Coordinator Alice Mwongeli Munyao said that the worst hit sub-counties by the prolonged drought were Kibwezi East, Kibwezi West, some parts of Makueni and Mbooni respectively.

She observed that the county currently is at an alert state heading to worsening state following the prolonged drought that hit the area.

Courtesy ; K. N. A