Nakuru County Government is implementing a raft of strategies to enhance value chains in the crops and livestock sectors to support the pillars of food and nutrition security to ultimately help grow exports and reduce imports.
Agriculture Chief Officer Mr Newton Mwaura explained that value addition and agro-processing of agriculture and livestock products represented a huge potential source of livelihoods for farmers adding that the County administration was keen on investing huge resources towards promoting dairy, potato, maize, pyrethrum, avocado and oil crops value chains among others.
On the national level, Mwaura observed that Kenya had long been exporting commodities in raw form adding that with increased investment in value addition, volumes of Kenya's enriched commodities and finished products would increase and this would help the country stake a bigger claim to local, regional, and global market shares.
He stated that the County was shifting its focus from local markets to new and fast-growing markets regionally and internationally as a way of attracting premium prices for small holder farmers' produce and subsequently improve their incomes.
