Turkana,
Monday, March 18, 2024
KNA by Peter Gitonga/Ezekiel Ngasike
Nearly 760 acres of land has been reclaimed for agriculture from the domination of the Prosopis Juliflora and Prosopis chilensis (mathenge).
The County Government and the implementing partner, USAID, visited the Elelea Irrigation Scheme in Katilia Ward, Turkana East, to strengthen cross-county knowledge exchange and integration activity.
Elelea Scheme was picked from other projects as an avenue to integrate programs with other county priorities, after agreeing on strategic areas for improvement.
The Chair of the Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth (PREG), who is also the Field Director of USAID NAWIRI, Gabriel Ekuwam, said that the Elelea Irrigation Scheme was strategically picked among other projects supported by NAWIRI in Turkana East.
“The Irrigation Scheme provides a cross-sectoral platform, to learn and identify opportunities for leveraging, on what other partners are doing. This is geared towards eliminating duplication. We also jointly monitor the implementation progress of the USAID programmes with the County Government. USAID NAWIRI, has supported farmers to reclaim land for more than 1,200 households and enable them be food secure as well as fight malnutrition in the area,” Ekuwam said.
The PREG Partners are all those organizations which USAID funds to implement projects in Turkana County.During the field visit at Elelea, the PREG partners and the County Government staff, engaged the community on issues of food security at the household level.
The County Director of Agriculture, Aaron Nanok, lauded the cross-county knowledge exchange by the PREG, as the only pathway partners and government can sequence, layer, and integrate programmes.
He added that the government has deployed several extension officers, including interns to support extension services in Elelea and the rest of Irrigation Schemes in Turkana East.
“In addition to what the partners have done, the County has furrowed 400 acres for the irrigation canal. We have also trained 200 farmers on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Conservation Agriculture,” Director Nanok said.
He said crop diversification with the intent to reduce malnutrition cases among the farming community.
Apart from subsistence farming, the team agreed that the government and partners need to prioritise Agri-business, which results in income generation for the farmers.
The cross-learning event comes barely two months, after the PREG partners went for a similar activity in Isiolo, Samburu, and Marsabit Counties.
Courtesy; KNA