The duration of a project that helps farmers in Taita Taveta county to increase the productivity and profitability of cereal crops has been extended.
The Kenya Cereal Enhancement Programme - Climate Resilient Agricultural Livelihoods project will run for two more years.
Officials said the extension was informed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected production sectors derailing efforts to build a nutrition and food-secure county.
“It targets medium and high potential production areas of the region in line with the government's priorities to expand support to smallholder farmers in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands,” said Kiprotich Chomboi, a value chain specialist.
The project was initiated in 2018.
Its aim was to boost food security and empower farmers by promoting agribusiness through producing large volumes of high-quality yields.
The project is funded collaboratively by the European Union, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme and the Government of Kenya.
It is overseen by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Chomboi said farmers will soon be able to access markets through an online platform known as grain market system.
"We want smallholder farmers to benefit from agriculture by training them on best practices. A ready market is being prepared for the sorghum and green gram crops," he said.
Chomboi spoke during a meeting with agriculture officers drawn from Taita Taveta and Kilifi counties at Voi.
The officer said that more small-scale farmers are being sensitised to embrace planting sorghum, green grams and other drought-tolerant crops.
Agriculture executive Erickson Kyongo said the extension will support the county's efforts to improve livelihoods.
So far, he said, the project has offered capacity building and training on good agricultural practices to more than 2,000 farmers.
Further, farmers have benefited from sorghum, green grams and cowpeas, thus increasing productivity, Kyongo said.
He said the department is seeking more partnerships with key stakeholders to strengthen food systems that can contribute to greater food security and socioeconomic prosperity.
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya