CEC member for Agriculture and livestock Gilchrist Okuom addressing Farmers baraza in South East Nyakach (Picture by Norbert Wekesa)
By Harriet Chausiku
The county departments of Agriculture and the Business cooperative held a stakeholders’ forum with farmers of South East Nyakach ward to deliberate on the formation of a dairy cooperative society in the area.
The cooperative is expected to enable farmers to collectively market their products, train each other on better ways of dairy keeping, learn more about various diseases affecting dairy cows and share the challenges and successes they have encountered.
South East Nyakach ward being a highly potential dairy farming area has so far received the highest number of cows from the county government to promote dairy farming in Kisumu.
Speaking during the meeting the CEC member, Mr. Gilchrist Okuom said that the formation of a cooperative society will help take back Livestock production to its pick as it was in the old days.
The CEC member confirmed that the ward received a total of 56 cattle and 18 goats in the last 2 years making it the model ward for dairy production and he is therefore looking forward to the transformation of the practiced Agriculture into an Agribusiness.
He also encouraged more production and assured the residents on upgrading the breeds they have by procuring cattle from different regions and to practice artificial insemination to boost milk production for the market
The farmers were also encouraged to do integrated farming for food security, animal feed and also look at their products from an extensive view which includes the byproducts like cream, cheese and ghee which is exported with its chain of benefits.
The area MCA Ho Johnson Guya said that he is looking forward to starting a Milk processing plant in the next one or two years and would wish to bring both South East and part of South West Nyakach ward residents to work together so that they can be able to produce in bulk and sustain it.
Hon. Guya urged the farmers to take good care of the Livestock handed over to them noting that out of the 14 cattle issued only 3 of them died and the rest calved down with the production of 10 to 16 liters of milk per day.
Hon. Guya also thanked the county government of Kisumu for working together in boosting milk production in the Nyakach sub-county and for the seeds issued to the residents for food and was hopeful that the product will boost food security in the area.
