Farmers in Migori County have been encouraged to establish soya bean farming as a money yield to satisfy the expanding need for the crop in the country.
Addressing KNA at the Agricultural Training Center in
Kisii town, Kisii County, Isaac Odero, a soya bean farmer from Migori, noted
there are a few groups within the area doing aggregation of soya bean because
of an increasing demand of the bean, however less production is evident.
“As soya bean farmers, we aggregate produce from the
farmers together so that they can have a collective bargaining power and avoid
exploitation by middlemen in the market,” said Odero.
He called attention to that in spite of the market for
soya bean being hearty, the creation of the yield in Migori can't satisfy the
need for the market now thus the requirement for farmers to deliver more soya
bean that will fulfill the need of consumers in Migori and adjoining counties, for example,
Kisii and Homa Bay.
Odero noticed that soya is one of the vegetables that
is more nutritious and can be consumed by people, domesticated animals and
poultry.
“It is also possible to process the crop and produce
pure soya beverage, oil and animal feeds as well as manure production for
organic farms. Soya is also a killer of trigger weeds which can be cleared from
farms, therefore, an advantage for farmers,” he added.
Fredrick Odero, another soya farmer, noticed that
Kenya had been bringing in a large portion of their soya beans from Zambia,
Uganda and Malawi.
“When these countries banned their exportation of soya
beans, the cost of animal feeds in Kenya almost doubled. Therefore, we want our
farmers to plant soya bean as a cash crop, that’s why we have come up with an
initiative where we will provide farmers with seeds, fertilizers and build
their capacity,” Odero said.
The soya bean farmers deliberated in the wake of
finishing a three-weeks coaching by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
focused on specialized staff and farmers on the pragmatic issues in poultry and
soya beans cultivating and capacity building.
Uriri Sub County Agricultural Officer, Dickson Otieno,
noticed the Farmers' Field Business School (FFBS) model of preparing zeroed in
on building the capacity of different value chain stakeholders, for example,
soya bean farmers to accomplish food security in the district.
“Soya can help us troubleshoot some of the problems we
encounter in the feed industry. Feeds are very expensive and farmers can be
empowered to produce their own feeds so that they reduce the cost of production
and make poultry and dairy products easily available,” said Otieno.
He noticed that the farmers had collaborated with
different projects in the area like Agriculture Sector Development Support Program
(ASDSP) that gives equipment to farmers to process feeds.
Otieno said they will leverage on such support and
encourage the farmers to be better producers by getting proper extension
support in terms of training.
He also noted that they will carry out 40 soya bean
FFBS training and anticipate that the trainings will expand to other
communities and counties so that farmers can inculcate similar approaches and paradigms
of doing things.
“We also expect the County Government to have buy-ins
and allocate funding for Farmers’ Field Business Schools in the near future,”
added Otieno.
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