Written by Mercy Kihugu

Nakuru County Government in collaboration with Dan Church Aid (DCA) conducted private stakeholders engagement field visits to farmers to understand the successes and challenges of the projects implemented by the organisation in the county.

The visit allowed the partners to identify opportunity gaps, address the challenges and get sustainable solutions.

The team led by CECM Agriculture Mr Leonard Bor and DCA Regional Manager Dr Immaculate Maina visited French beans and chilli farmers in Subukia Sub-county, carrots, pyrethrum and black soldier fly farmers in Njoro Sub-county.

DCA is set to launch a project dubbed reducing food loss and waste through green cold chain for farmers and traders in Kenya where they will construct a cold store for carrots farmers in Mau Narok to reduce post-harvest losses.

During the visits, it was noted that there’s a need to strengthen farmers’ associations and cooperatives in the county and empower the farmers to practice non-conventional farming as an alternative source of income.

The partners agreed to work together to capacity-build the farmers and sensitize, and train more farmers of existing opportunities in non-conventional farming mainly black soldier fly as an alternative source of protein for animal feeds.