Farmers urged to increase production to provide raw materials to factories

Kapsabet, Sunday, July 2, 2023

KNA by Linet Wafula

Nandi Governor Mr. Stephen Sang has asked farmers to double their efforts on their farms to increase production, a move that will ensure the county government’s established factories get raw materials.

Speaking at the AIC Bible College in Kapsabet town during the celebration of Ushirika Day, the County boss reminded farmers that the county government had invested a lot of money in the establishment of various factories around the county and it would be a waste of the taxpayers’ money if the factories were not fully utilized.

“The milk processing plant in Kabiyet will be fully functional in the next three months and it will require about 200,000 litres of milk daily; if that demand is not met, the close to Sh800million spent by the county government to establish the factory will go to waste,” said Sang.

Sang noted that the money would have been channeled to other departments but his administration decided to establish the milk processing plant following pleas from milk cooperatives that were considering borrowing loans to establish a milk processing plant.

“People can forget all the other things that I have done once I leave the office but I want to be remembered the most for fully supporting farmers in the value addition. I want to leave a legacy in agriculture,” he stated.

The second term governor listed a number of factories that are near completion which include: Coffee factory, an avocado processing factory and a milk processing plant.

He said Nandi Chicken Slaughterhouse which started its operations three months ago faced a shortage of supply of chicken, adding that the slaughterhouse which is a project of the county government that was geared towards supporting poultry farmers has a processing capacity of 500 birds per hour.

The failure of the farmers to supply enough chicken to meet the demand made the governor worry about how the milk plant would fare on.

As a result of this, the governor urged dairy farmers organized under cooperatives to work on increasing milk production as it would be shameful for the plant to be forced to source milk from other counties yet the plant was established specifically to address problems in Nandi County.

The governor also seized the opportunity to urge farmers not to be swayed by foreign companies to the extent of failing to supply milk to the county government’s plant a scenario that he said had happened in some counties.

“Cartels will offer you better prices for your products once the plant is operational,” said the governor. “If their intentions are good, they should offer you those good prices right now,” he added before reminding the farmers that their children will be employed in the factory as opposed to the “cartels” who operated outside the county.

He further urged coffee farmers to improve their production as one coffee tree in Nandi County produced about five kilograms of berries yet the production was incredibly higher in other counties.

He also noted that the tree planting exercises could be made to yield double benefits if residents were going to plant avocadoes in place of other species of trees.

Speaking during the event, Deputy Governor Dr. Yulita Cheruiyot urged the residents to join the 362 registered co-operatives in Nandi County. She stated that the county government will offer its full support to cooperatives as they were the key to the growth of the economy.

“We encourage farmers to join co-operatives so that they can benefit more. We have 135,000 registered co-operatives members in Nandi which is a small number,” she said

The event culminated in the awarding of outstanding cooperative unions with Nandi Farmers Sacco Society being crowned the best cooperative union in the county.

Courtesy ; K. N. A