February 13, 2023

 

Kenya to work with private sector on expanding livestock production

 

Kenya has partnered with the private sector to scale up livestock production in the country.

 

Through the Kenya Livestock Commercialization Program (KeLCoP), the initiative targets to support farmers on better indigenous poultry, dairy goats, honey and goat and sheep meat value chains.

 

The five-year project, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Kenyan government, targets to commercialise livestock production in 10 counties.

 

State Department for Livestock Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai said the move was set to boost incomes for over 110 households in the counties.

 

"We picked these four areas because of the nature of the rural poor so that we increase their incomes," he said.

 

Even though the project has also attracted grants from Heifer International for farmers rearing dairy cows, Kimtai said the government was reaching out to the private sector to rope in more farmers and ensure the project is sustained.

 

He added that the partnership targets to leverage and learn from the private sector's comparative advantages to achieve better results in the fight against hunger and poverty.

 

"We have had discussions with the private sector to see how they can support this programme," he said. "We have engaged them on possible areas of collaboration and each one of them is going to pick an area that interests them."

 

Among the partners, he said, include Kenchic, KCB Foundation and a host of financial institutions which are set to inject capital in the venture to support farmers who are not covered in the project.

 

"We intend to borrow from the extensive research done by our partners like Kenchic to support our rural poor farmers to reach commercialisation," he added.

 

Kenchic managing director Jim Tozer lauded the partnership saying it will go a long way in improving the poultry sector in Kenya. The company has a robust research and extension services department which will come in handy as the government moves to boost returns along the value chain, Tozer noted.

 

Kenchic, together with partners, was already involved in housing and nutrition programmes across the country, adding that the partnership with the government will help support more youths and women to actively venture into poultry farming.

 

KCB Foundation head Caroline Wanjeri said farmers will be organised into cooperatives through which they will receive credit from the foundation to venture into the four areas under the project.

 

"We are strengthening our Mifugo ni Mali programme. We are going to work with these cooperatives and lend through them to support farmers beyond the project timeframe," Wanjeri said. The goal was to come up with blended finance to reduce overreliance on grants and ensure the project is sustained.

 

The Kenya Livestock Commercialization Project (KeLCoP) came into force on March 5 and is expected to end on September 30.

 

The project's overall goal is to contribute to Kenya's agriculture transformation agenda of increasing rural small-scale farmers' incomes and food and nutrition security.

- Kenya News Agency