The County Government of Kisumu is adopting digital agriculture and youth-led agribusiness models to counter a severe personnel shortage, where the extension officer-to-farmer ratio stands at a stark 1:1800 and not 1:1400 as desired
While opening a two-day capacity-building workshop for county extension workers, the Chief Officer Mr. Erick Omondi Ogallo applauded AgriFoSe for organizing the training.
He highlighted that county training and budgets are currently centralized, leaving many staff without development opportunities.
Mr. Ogallo noted that stalling staff training directly hampers personnel growth and diminishes field performance, noting the strict correlation among the three.
To maximize human resources under these constraints, the Chief Officer emphasized the 70-20-10 professional development framework:70% of career growth is built on-the-job through practical field experience.20% stems from peer-to-peer engagement and mentorship.10% comes from formal training sessions, like the AgriFoSe workshop, which provide the essential tools to fill current extension gaps.
Target Areas and Core mandate.
The intensive training brought together 15 extension officers drawn from four target sub-counties: Kisumu East, Kisumu West, Kisumu Central, and Seme.Led by a team of expert facilitators—including Jeffrey Bonyo, Hesbon Okal, and Director Charles Kakuku. The officers were taken through modern extension approaches, water quality and management, and the fundamentals of agroforestry. The training also emphasized how integrating trees with crops can yield dual benefits for local farmers, creating both ecological resilience and economic income streams.
Leveraging NAVCDP for Digital Youth EmploymentTo address the 1:1,800 officer deficit, Mr. Ogallo revealed that the County is deploying the “Agripreneur” model under the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP). This initiative engages youth in the digital space, equipping graduates with digital extension and agribusiness models to help them become self-employed and to launch creative businesses.
Concluding his remarks, the Chief Officer urged the 15 trainees to give the workshop their full attention, noting that it will add immediate, critical value to their daily work.
