Small holder farmers should access skills to improve on their production, Lobby says.

Participants following proceedings during a stakeholders' two days meeting in Kisumu on validation report on the baseline survey on the skill missing gaps among the small holder farmers in four counties -Photo By James Keyi.

By Dickson Odhiambo.

September 26, 2017.

Small holder farmers should access skills to improve on their production, Lobby says.

There is still need for the small holder farmers within East African region to access skills and knowledge in modern agriculture so as to help them improve on their produce, a lobby group has said.

The Group says that project working under the civic engagement alliance is advocating for the small holder farmers to access more improved skills and knowledge so as to enable them have improved production.

Speaking during a meeting of stakeholders in Kisumu, ICCO and Edukans Regional skills expert for East Africa Robert Njoroge said they are focused on doing lobbying and advocacy to the small holder farmers aimed at improving food security.

He says the role the small holder famers play is very vital hence cannot be ignored in improving food security and food production in the world.

“We are very much focused on the issue of lobbying and advocating so that the small holder farmers get skills and knowledge so as to be able to improve on the role they play in the value chain either as producers, production among others,” he says.

He says there are already a lot of initiatives ongoing in the region so as to bring the concerted effort for the improvement on better service delivery by the small holder farmers.

He says the program is being implemented in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.

Njoroge says the organization works with other partners like Africa Youth Trust among other local partners so as to lobby and advocate for the small holder farmers so as to access better services for improved production.

Programs Officer for the Civic Engagement Alliance in Kenya Gitau Ndung’u says they are also advocating on how small scale farmers should access sustainable markets for their products.

He says they are also looking on how to enhance advocacy space for civil societies lobbying for small holders farmers to get skills for improved production.

Executive Director of African Youth Trust Nahashon Gulali says the organization is one of the consortiums in the Civic Engagement Alliance and is meant to look at the skills component by the Small holder farmers to ensure that they are packaged into a way that they are able to push for their issues.

He says they are empowering small holder farmers to better value chains as well as access the markets for their produce.

He says they are also empowering the farmers with knowledge so as to ensure there is proper legislation on issues affecting their work at the county Government levels.

“The farmers need to be brought on board so as to be able to lobby for their issues for themselves and this is why we are empowering them with skills and knowledge so as to be able to lobby and advocate for the issue affecting them,” he says.

He says their project covers four counties in the country namely Kisumu, Busia, Homa Bay and Kakamega, adding that they are urging the small holder farmers to be able to produce quality food.

“The farmers also need to get linkages on how to get finance from Agricultural financial institutions and how to better their production for better incomes,” he adds.

A researcher with the Institute for Applied Studies and Research {IASR} Richard Bonyo says a recently conducted baseline research survey among small scale farmers in four counties shows that farmers have a number of challenges in virtually all the process of the value chains.

He says the survey was conducted in Kisumu, Homa Bay, Busia and Kakamega between June and July last year for a period of 30 days with a sole purpose of documenting the small holder farmers’ knowledge gaps that impede their access to markets and value chains.

He says a total of 263 farmers were interviewed with each county getting a number of respondents for the research study.

Bonyo says the research study has found that farmers still have a challenge in what type of crop to plant in what particular place.

He adds that the study has also found that there is still a challenge on issue of policies where the policies do not favor the small holder farmers and this should be re-looked into.

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