The Mt Kenya Times 
Kisii County governor Simba Arati , Deputy governor Robert Monda, Dennis Ombachi Marani MCA during the ground breaking ceremony for the PO proposed aggregation and marketing centres photo /Elizabeth Angira
By: Elizabeth Angira
Worth Noting:
- The main indigenous vegetables grown include spider flower, black night shade, amaranthus, pumpkin, African Spinach (Enderema) and cowpeas.
- Speaking at Magena and Marani during the ground-breaking ceremony for the proposed vegetable aggregation and marketing centers, Governor Simba Arati said that, the county is leading in vegetable production in the county with about 700 acres of land under local vegetable production.
- The county boss noted that most vegetable farmers practice individual marketing and are prone to exploitation by middlemen.
- He said that the existing open air market structures have insufficient sheds to accommodate the vegetable traders among the rest of the value chains hence the need to mitigate this challenge by initiating the aggregation and marketing model.
Residents of Kisii County have been appealed to venture in short term horticultural crops and vegetable production which are economical but highly potential in returns to investment.
Local vegetable is among the leading food security and income generation crops in Kisii County. The area and indigenous vegetables 1,700 hectares, with a total production of 24,000 tones, bringing a total earning of 1,168,956,000 to the county.
The main indigenous vegetables grown include spider flower, black night shade, amaranthus, pumpkin, African Spinach (Enderema) and cowpeas.
Speaking at Magena and Marani during the ground-breaking ceremony for the proposed vegetable aggregation and marketing centers, Governor Simba Arati said that, the county is leading in vegetable production in the county with about 700 acres of land under local vegetable production.
He cited that, green vegetable marketing in Kisii and generally within the catchment is disjointed and disorganized and farmers experience post-harvest losses of up to 30 percent since the vegetables are highly perishable.
According to him supporting farmers to reap maximum benefits from their toil is a key priority in his administration and the importance of the aggregation Centre cannot be gainsaid.
Challenges
The county boss noted that most vegetable farmers practice individual marketing and are prone to exploitation by middlemen.
He said that the existing open air market structures have insufficient sheds to accommodate the vegetable traders among the rest of the value chains hence the need to mitigate this challenge by initiating the aggregation and marketing model.
He noted that, with the diminishing land sizes in Kisii, horticulture is highly advisable and vegetable farming is highly recommended for subsistence.
Cold Storage Facilities
Arati said that the county is helping farmers to have the shelf life of their crop enhanced through provision of cold storage facilities and other forms of value addition besides availing local and foreign markets construction of the vegetable aggregation center will be essentially a meeting point for all vegetable value-chain players especially producers, traders and transporters – it will be an aggregation point for vegetables from all surrounding catchments.
“Aggregation is one step towards alleviating the challenges faced by our farmers,” he said.
He noted that pooling together of farmers has an advantage since it will enable farmers to come together and form an association so that they are able to forge a common approach to market their products better.
“Equally, Aggregating of vegetable produce will enable farmers and traders to minimize loses and maximize profits through joint transportation, storage and processing,” he said.
According to him alongside aggregation, employment opportunities will be available for persons from the communities surrounding the proposed investment.
Governor said that the popularity and demand for indigenous vegetables had continued to the increase due to campaigns on their medicinal and nutritional value.
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