The Presidential Economic Transformation Secretariat, led by Dr. Dominic Menjo,h has assured Uasin Gishu farmers championing various agriculture value chains of the government’s readiness to reviving production to reduce imports, grow exports, and create employment.

Speaking during the training of leaders of various cooperative societies from across the County, Menjoh said already the government, through NAVCDP, has already identified at least one Farmer Cooperative Society and one Sacco in every ward that will be the drivers of the economic transformation agenda.

According to Menjoh, the adoption of the initiative upon the launch will revolutionize the multivalue chain, resulting in a paradigm shift to the County’s agricultural sector.

“We want to implement what we have been discussing with our farmers on building sustainable cooperative societies and growing the economy. That is why we have the societies in place for the plan to take off,” said Menjoh.

The societies will be able to act as aggregation centres, do value addition, and ease farmers’ services since all government programs will be channelled through them.

He also disclosed that societies will be funded through the Ministry of Cooperatives, enabling them to access funding and grants to support their ventures across various value chains.

County Executive for Agriculture, Dr Sam Kottu, lauded the Secretariat for their commitment to helping farmers come together and engage in profitable farming.

“The vision of our governor under Nguzo number one is to see farmers growing economically through promoting and encouraging agricultural aggregation as a strategy to achieve economies of scale through cooperatives. That is why we are keen to ensure that the initiative comes into realization as soon as possible,” added Kottut

He also noted that when the initiative is rolled out, all agriculture-related services will be directed to the societies for them to run and manage.

“Through this program, fertilizer, for instance, will be deposited in the respective societies as opposed to the current system where it is offloaded and stored in government cereal stores,” he posed.

Directors Drucilla Cherogony(Cooperatives)and Philip Biama(Agriculture) were among other government officers present.
Agriculture