The government with the support of the World Bank has this year allocated Sh.222 million to undertake an agricultural project aimed at improving the livelihoods of the Turkana county residents working in the agriculture sector.
Under the National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP), the World Bank and the county government have contributed Sh.376 million since inception of the project in June 2018.
The NARIGP county project coordinator, Joseph Ekalale said of this amount Sh.296 million has already been spent to improve agricultural productivity and profitability among the select value chains that include goats and sheep, local poultry, bee keeping and sorghum and cow peas inter cropping.
“So far Sh.135 million has been disbursed directly to various groups that deal in goats and sheep, honey, poultry, sorghum and cowpeas production,” said Ekalale.
The Project is currently being implemented in six sub counties in the county, with the exception of Kibish sub county.
“The aim of this project is increase agricultural productivity and profitability among the select value chains that include goats and sheep, local poultry, honey, sorghum and cowpeas intercropping,” said Ekalale.
A key premise of the NARIGP is the importance of linking farmer/Common Interest Groups (CIGs) and Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups (VMGs) organized along priority Value Chains (VC) to markets, thus the three technical components of NARIGP are interlinked.
The project is domiciled in the ministry of agriculture but was previously under the ministry of devolution.
Meanwhile, the government through the Hunger safety net project managed by National Drought Management Authority will this year spend Sh.1,293 billion to support needy households in the county.
The County NDMA Coordinator, Abdikadir Hassan said 39,918 households in the county are beneficiaries of the programme. “Each household receives Sh.5,400 every two months,” he said.
He added that the process of new registration is ongoing re targeting the beneficiaries to ensure only the neediest benefit. “We have concluded registration in six sub counties except Turkana west,” he said.
The five sub counties are Turkana East, Turkana central, Loima, Kibish and Turkana North.
By Peter Gitonga
