Tuesday, January 15, 2019
By Barrack Muli,
Kitui County will launch the County Livestock Multiplication DrivebGovernor Charity Ngilu has said.
The plan is an initiative under the Livestock Sector Development Programme and will use scientific methods to synchronize animals to come on heat at the same time and realize mass inseminations on the animals.Addressing county administrators and officers from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Livestock Development, Ngilu said *her government seeks to improve on the quality of the livestock breeds both for diary and for beef and increase milk and meat production, therefore increasing income to the households that keep livestock.
Ngilu said the county has 401,265 heads of cattle, and only 6,685 dairy cattle noting that the milk produced from the 6,000 dairy cows is not adequate for domestic consumption.
“If each of 60,000 livestock keeping households in Kitui can produce only 5 litres of milk per day, that would be 300,000 liters per day. If these retail at Ksh 50 per litre it would fetch Ksh 15 million per day, Ksh 450 million per month and Ksh 5.4 billion annually!” said Ngilu.
Ngilu said the additional sh.5bn annually would significantly impact household gains and boost the county’s economy within a short period.On his part, Deputy Governor Wathe Nzau said artificial livestock keeping is the next frontier in the county’s farming vision that would see many farmers benefit from the technology.
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