Africa-Press – Kenya. Turkana County Government in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are working together for the adoption of mechanised farming to boost agricultural production.
Paul Lokone, the County Director of Agriculture said they are jointly working on a strategy that will see local farmers adopt mechanisation as an approach to food production.
He spoke on Friday at Lokichar during the five days FAO funded training of officers drawn from Agriculture, cooperative development and decentralized administration.
Lokone said that a plan to speed the uptake of mechanised agriculture in Turkana had been shared with all the trainees.
He said trainees have been urged to share the plan when interacting with farmers in the course of providing extension services.
“The ultimate aim of this training is to empower agricultural officers to effectively introduce farmers to mechanization and help Turkana achieve the much-needed food security through the new approach to farming,” Director Lokone said.
Lokone outlined some of the points as relating to; access and distribution, quality assurance, innovations, governance, climate-sensitive technology and commercialization of agricultural mechanisation.
Experts facilitating the training have a wealth of experience in academia, research and best practices relevant to this strategy formulation.
The training is also attended by experienced practitioners of mechanized agriculture from Eldoret, Busia and Migori to facilitate knowledge transfer.
Lokone further revealed that the upcoming Agricultural Training Centre (ATC) in Lodwar will house a department solely concerned with Agricultural Mechanized Service (AMS) for a more structured knowledge transfer.
The training comes at a time when the department of Agriculture is spearheading the Turkana Agricultural Sector Growth Strategy for food production and fighting malnutrition in a bid to push for a more food-secure population.
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