By Anderson Ojwang
Deputy Governor Dr Mathews Owili has appealed to the Luo community to embrace commercial agriculture to boost food security and enhance the economy, Owili who is the Kisumu Deputy Governor said it was important for the community to adopt a new policy that would enable the strengthening of the household economies to avoid high poverty level in the region.
He said it was important to the people of Nyanza to participate in agricultural field days to learn of the new and emerging trends in the field.
“Some of the basic needs like vegetables, fruits, poultry and livestock should be made a priority by the community to avoid high capital flight by importing those foodstuff to Nyanza.
We can grow these crops and through this, we will be able to reduce expenditures and the saved money can be invested in other development projects,” he said.
He said it was unfortunate that in some households they purchase everything including vegetables and eggs which impacts negatively on the household economy.
Speaking in Kasipul sub-county in Homa Bay county during Rachuonyo South Farmers Field Day where he appealed to the residents to invest in agriculture.
He said Homa Bay county is Nyanza’s bread basket because 90 percent of its land is arable and suitable for Agriculture and investment in agriculture would spur the region’s economy and reduce high dependence on food from other regions.
He challenged farmers in the area to form cooperatives to help boost their savings and provide a market for their products.
Owili said Kisumu county government has a program of giving graded livestock to farmers to boost agriculture but it has faced some teething problems.
“It is important to inform you that in Kisumu County, some of the farmers we gave livestock either sold them or used to pay bride price for their wives.
Some have also declined to share with other group members the calf from the cow as was agreed and this is a serious problem.
This has negated the program from achieving its intended objectives. We want a wealthy and rich community,” he said.
The exercise was in collaboration between the County Government of Homa Bay and the Uzima C.B.O Diary Project where the Kongete farmers group received a cow. The host Newton Ogada said the project was aimed at creating a farming culture in farmers in the region.
