By Jackton Omondi
Kisumu county government in partnership with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held a three-day training session on food system assessment at Acacia Hotel in Kisumu between 8th to 10th September 2021.
The assessment covered three aspects namely value chain analysis, geo spatial mapping and consumption patterns. The training was aimed at sensitizing enumerators on the use of Kobo
Collect App and the Rapid Urban Food System Assessment (RUFSAT) tool to carry out field data collection majorly within the urban and peri urban areas of Kisumu County. Other aspects which the enumerators were trained on included how to conduct oral interviews, social ethics while in the field.
RUFSAT tool focused on information related to waste management, Climate Smart Production practices, consumption, and food away from Home, Aggregation/Distribution, processing/packaging and retailing. The purpose of the assessment is to provide information that with will be used in the development of food strategy document for Kisumu County. The technical team comprised of the 3 consultants, 6 technical assistants and 12 enumerators. Other participants included FAO staff and FLAG representatives.
According to Prof. George Onyango, a lead consultant in geo spatial mapping geographical information systems will be used to determine the distribution of the value chain actors. The information will be as a strategy for planning and decision making,
The survey will take a minimum of 10 days falling between 13th to 30th September 2021, and will be targeting household families and key informants within and outside Kisumu. The data collection process will officially immense on Monday this week
The co-chairman of the FLAG , Mr. Samba Nixon thanked the technical team for incorporating the youth in the exercise since they are the future of the country. The County Executive Committee member for Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock and Fisheries, Mr. Okuom added that they were keen on circumstances under which food was handled. Was hopeful that the data would be authentic as it would not only be for ‘one of us’ but for ‘all of us’. He later pleaded with all the data collectors and technical assistance team have high integrity while in the field. He further implored them to be conscious of social, political and economic dynamics.
