The three-day training on PICD has today come to a close as the trained Sub County Technical Team is expected to commence training of other 20 officers in the sub county in the coming week.
Among the 20 0fficers to be trained in each Sub County include: Chief, Ward Administrators, Ward Manager, NGO representative at the Sub County, Sub County heads and Sub County Agricultural Champion.
The anticipated major outcomes of the trainings at the Sub Counties are: constitution of community driven development committees (CDDCs), a list of common interest groups (CIGs)/vulnerable and marginalized groups (VMGs), a list of potential SACCOs members, enlisted priority value chains, and a list of potential food producer organizations.
During the three- days training, the ToTs were taken through an overview of the NAVCDP project, introduction to FLID, PICD, phases of the PICD process, tools of attitude change, transect walk, community resource mapping, trend lines, historical resource matrix, agronomic calendar, problem tree analysis, objectives focused discussion groups or key informant interviews, way forward and a work plan developed.
While officially closing the training, the CECM for Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock and Fisheries, Hon. Kenn Onyango lauded the participants for their commitment to the task. He also thanked the County Project Coordinator for setting in motion the training even without funds.
The CECM expressed his desire that the program becomes the game changer in the agricultural space. He reiterated that since the inception of devolution, partners have been coming with colossal amounts of money but the impact has not been great.
It is on this premise he said the national government in liaison with the project coordinators decided to have a paradigm shift so as not to make a false step.
Hon. Onyango implored on the trainers that as they go to train 20 other people in each Sub County, they should give them factual and clear picture so that they understand and make a difference with in the agricultural space.
He further asked them to disseminate factual information, not laced with unnecessary expectations, but they must be people with good intentions to improve food security situation in the county.
Kisumu having selected five value chains namely, chicken, dairy, tomatoes, cotton and rice, he advised the Sub County teams to help identify, prioritize and map the Value Chain that can do well in their area.
On his part, the County Project Coordinator, Mr. Sylvester Okech on his part thanked the participants for their commitment and resilience. He called on them to uphold the spirit as they work together to improve the livelihood of the people.
Mr. Okech promised to look into the work plans submitted and make revisions where necessary before the actual activity starts.
He alluded that the program might have to move with speed and some activities may run co- currently such as registration and profiling of farmers along side the PICD so that people work within the planned financial resources.
On updates, he said currently 45 Counties are now selected to implement the project except Mombasa and Nairobi, rising from the previous 32 selected. Already 24 Counties are on course.
