Siaya County government through the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Program (NAVCDP), has begun training farmers in North Sakwa on good agronomic practices to boost food security in the region.
Speaking during a farmer’s field school for the Ralingo farmer group at Majiwa village, North Sakwa ward Agricultural extension officer Mr. Jackson Achuti said the program aims to train farmers on skills right from planting all the way to harvesting.
Achuti disclosed that the program targets to train 80 farmers across each of the four zones of Abom, Ajigo, Barchando, and BarKowino, who will, in turn, be expected to train at least 5,000 farmers in the ward by the end of the year.
“We meet twice a month to train the farmers so that they can escalate the skills gained to other farmers in the ward. The training, which shall be continuous throughout the year, involves capacity building of the farmers on good agricultural practices for crops such as cotton, maize, sunflower, green gram, and okra,” he said.
“Some of the good agronomic practices the training will impact on the farmers include choice of crop variety, control of weeds, soil health and fertility, crop protection by choosing the right chemicals to use on the plants, and post-harvest handling to reduce losses,” Achuti added.
He exuded confidence that the training for the farmers will not only give them knowledge to improve productivity but will also improve food security in the region.
“I am confident that the hands-on training will make a big difference on our farmers. Ten years ago, the training adoption rate was between 20 and 30 percent, but today, out of every ten farmers that have been trained on good agronomic practices, eight will adopt what they have been trained on, meaning the adoption rate is at 80%, which is a good indicator that we are succeeding,” Achuti remarked.
The Agricultural officer thanked organisations and companies like Seed Co., Advanta, CGA, Kenya Seed, Yara, ETG and Simlaw, who have partnered with the program by supplying quality inputs to farmers to increase productivity.
Raphael Ngaiwa, chair of the Ralingo farmers group said that trainings have opened their eyes and the farmers who have been undertaking subsistence farming have been empowered to go into agribusiness.
“We want to change from farming huge tracts of land and getting little returns to undertaking farming of small pieces of land to get bumper harvests,” said Ngaiwa.
His counterpart, Pamela Achieng Adera, said the farmers have gained skills in spacing of crops, fertilizer application, top dressing application, and monitoring of the crops’ growth on a daily basis.
“Previously we just planted and left the crops to grow without close monitoring; now with the training we know better. We are now able to undertake agribusiness, which will enable us to pay school fees for our children,” Achieng said.
By Brian Ondeng
