County gifts farmers with four milk coolers

Cooperative society receive milk coolers

Five milk cooperative societies in Kericho County will benefit from four milk cooling machines and a pasteuriser acquired for them by the county government at a cost of Sh29 million.

Speaking recently at Moi Gardens during a ceremony to symbolise the handing over of the machines, Governor Paul Chepkwony said the four milk cooling machines were the first batch of diary machines his administration had ordered from Turkey in a Sh53 million project.

“When the county government took office, Kericho used to produce 110 million litres of milk annually but the production has since shot up to 120 million litres. That is an increase of 10 million litres and that is why my government decided to purchase milk cooling machines for vibrant cooperative societies,"   Prof Chepkwony said.

County Assembly leader Daniel Rono and the assembly’s agricultural committee chairman, Andrew Soi, commended the county government for investing in the machines which they said would minimise cases of milk going bad before reaching the market.

County Agriculture Executive Paul Chepkwony  said the milk machines were only “capital support” and cooperative societies would have to incur the cost of electricity and other expenses required to run the machines.

Chepkwony asked the societies to ensure that the machines were well utilised as this would encourage the county government to provide farmers with more support.

Already, said  the executive,   the county government plans to launch fodder production at its agricultural research and training centre in Soin/Sigowet constituency.