Narok farmers get Sh2m heifers to boost milk production

NAROK: The Kenya Commercial Bank Foundation yesterday handed farmers 15 heifers worth Sh2.4 million to boost milk production.

The cows were given to Wapoo Farmers' Cooperative Society Limited under the Foundation's Mifugo Ni Mali initiative, which was established in 2014 to boost the livestock sector and eradicate poverty in counties within Arid and Semi-Arid regions.

Narok County was allocated Sh30 million. Speaking during the handing over ceremony at the weekend, Narok Governor Samuel ole Tunai praised the partnership between his government and the foundation, which has seen farmers get offered interest-free loans to invest in modern livestock farming.

Tunai called on the pastoralists in the area to ditch traditional breeds of livestock and venture into the profitable dairy farming in a bid to eradicate widespread poverty in the county. "As a county, we want zero-tolerance to poverty, which has crippled developments among our people. We thank partners such as KCB Foundation for this initiative but we need the amount to be raised from the current Sh30 million to even Sh500 million to reach more farmers," he added.

The governor also pledged to give out milk coolers to the cooperative society to ensure that they store their milk in readiness for good markets.

The society's current main activity is milk collection and selling and currently trades around 300kgs of milk per day with a growth target of over 1,000kgs of milk per day.

KCB Narok Branch Manager David Loolpapit called on the farmers to form a cooperative to be able to benefit from the interest-free loans being offered by the bank.

"The membership since inception has grown from 20 to about 180 and the society is on a recruitment drive targeting 2,000 members due to capacity building that we have been building for more farmers to join the cooperative," said Loolpapit.