Agriculture and Livestock Development Key in Uplifting Livelihoods in Kitui County

By Munyasya Nuysam Kitui Governor’s Press

Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu has pledged to strengthen the agricultural and livestock sectors to boost food security and wealth creation in the county. Noting that the five pillars in her development manifesto were interlinked, Ngilu said water, agriculture and livestock development were key determinants of success in the other pillars of healthcare, women empowerment and wealth creation.

Speaking for the second day when she met agricultural, livestock and water field officers drawn from the entire county, Ngilu appealed to them to commit to ensuring farmers produce enough food and raise incomes through exploitation of available resources and modern technologies.“Going forward I want to see our people produce our own food using the land, labour, capital and appropriate technologies which are all abundant in our county”, said the Governor.

She pledged to assist the officers to cope with the many challenges they face in executing their work by providing the necessary resources.Governor Ngilu said the County Government of Kitui had set aside funds to improve value addition initiatives in agriculture and livestock sectors through increased processing of local livestock and agricultural produce.

She said the garment, beef and milk could be turned into key economic drivers noting that Kitui county spent sh5 billion annually on milk and uniforms. “We are set to make our own uniforms by constructing a garment factory in Kitui and salvage the money spent on uniforms from other counties. We shall also construct an abattoir to process meat from our livestock and export to other places”, said Governor Ngilu.Noting that Kitui county consumes at least 140,000 litres of milk per day at a cost of sh7 million, the Governor said the county has the capacity to produce her own milk and retain at least sh2.5 billion incomes annually from milk in the county.

She noted that so far her government has refurbished the Kitui Slaughterhouse making it capable of processing at least 100 cattle instead of the previous 30 cattle per day.In anticipation of the garment factory, the Governor said the county government has partnered with the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) to train youths to work in the factory.Ends…