Busia rice farmers have reasons to smile after receiving one rice milling and two auto grading machines, four weeders and other assorted equipment to boost rice production.
The equipments were donated to the farmers under the rice promotion program.
Busia County, National and Venezuela Governments, Food and Agricultural Organization have partnered to boost rice production in the County.
Busia Deputy Governor Moses Mulomi thanked the development partners, FAO and Venezuelan Government for partnering with Busia County Government to empower rice farmers.
“ With this mill to be managed by Bunyala Rice Farmers Cooperative Society Limited, we also expect another mill for Lower Nzoia project that will be managed by Magombe Multi-purpose Cooperative Society to enhance value addition to Busia rice,” he said.
Mulomi said mechanization will prevent farmers from selling unprocessed rice to Uganda where it undergoes value addition.
“Value addition on rice produced within the county will now be carried out and with packed rice finding its way on retail shops and supermarkets across the County, farmers will get more money ,” he said.
The DG said apart from Busia brand rice, farmers will be able to get value addition from rice husks including chicken, fish and animal feeds, utilization of straws for amongst other value addition activities that can make us utilize all the rice products and “wastes”.
Venezuela Ambassador to Kenya Jesus Manzanilla said the aim of the partnership is to ease the burden and ensure high productivity of rice not only in Busia but in Kenya as a whole.
“I am very happy that the government of Venezuela can contribute to this program; we shall continue to conduct capacity building and exchange programs to better the outcome” he said.
Jane Ndung’u from the National Government said that the per capita consumption of rice has risen to 20.6% from 13% having imported rice worth Sh27billion in 2017, noting that they are charged with the responsibility of bridging the importation gap.
FAO representative Dr. Tobias Takavarasha said they have aligned their programs with specialized technical agency of the UN to support in terms of capacity building and knowledge sharing.
He said they want to address the importance of mechanization to reduce production costs, post-harvest losses and to improve productivity.
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