Six hundred Vihiga farmers have benefitted from Sh2 million items donated by Welt Hunger Hilfe (WHH), a German Ngo, to help in the ar on Covid-19.
They received hand sanitiser, handwashing buckets, masks, thermal guns, chemical spray suits, disinfection spray pumps, respirator gas masks, safety goggles and chemical protective gloves, among other items.
Governor Wilber Ottichilo, while distributing the items, thanked the NGO, saying the donations will go a long way in cushioning farmers from the harsh economic times posed by the Covid-19 crisis.
Ottichillo said his administration will assist the Vihiga Dairy Cooperative to get land for expansion so it can cope with the increasing demand for milk in the county.
He urged farmers to scale up milk production from the current 1,000 litres per day to 5,000 litres for his administration to fast-track the purchase of land.
WHH has partnered with Vihiga Dairy Cooperative in capacity building and purchase of equipment for farmers to enable them to boost production.
So far the organisation has trained more than 20 farmers’ groups with 708 members, mapped and recruited 40 groups with an average membership of 1,340 dairy farmers, and procured a milk ATM for the cooperative, among other agribusiness initiatives geared towards improving livelihoods.
Plans are at an advanced stage to set up of a milk processing plant so farmers can add value and realise better returns.
Deputy Governor Patrick Saisi thanked WHH for involving youths in their programmes.
“The youth population accounts for more than 40 per cent of Kenya’s total population. It is encouraging to see most of our youths being incorporated in WHH activities,” he said.
He added that WHH has changed the narrative that the youth cannot venture into agribusiness as full time employment.
WHH programmes officer Raymond Kirui, on behalf of the organisation’s programme advisor Dr Stephen Ochieng’, said the donations will assist farmers to observe the laid-down guidelines against Covid-19 as set by the Ministry of Health.
He said WHH will endeavour to partner with the county government to improve the standards of farmers. Kirui said WWH has trained 609 farmers and 40 milk handlers in Covid-19 prevention and reporting and its symptoms.