Tuesday,30 April 2019
By Liz Muthoka& yoana kimwele
Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu has restated her commitment to creating wealth as a way of eradicating poverty in the county.
Speaking while addressing the Kitui Agriculture Value Chain stakeholders meeting in Kitui Agricultural Training Centre ( ATC), the Governor said wealth creation was key in improving the livelihoods of Kitui residents.
” I am very passionate about honey, this is a real game changer for the people of Kitui,” she said.
The Governor cited the use of traditional equipment by farmers during harvesting as the main setback in reducing the quality of honey.
She confirmed the county government’s support in matters training and equipping farmers with the right tools during harvesting and production of honey to improve quality and increase production.
Deputy Governor Wathe Nzau said the county government was committed to making the county food secure saying honey was food.
“Increasing honey production is a way of increasing food production in Kitui,” he said.
The County Chief Officer for Agriculture Water and Livestock Development Mr . James Songolo said
they county aims at increasing productivity by encouraging more farmers to move into the Agriculture value chain as it was an easy way of making money.
On his part, the County Value Chain specialist D.r Temi Mutia said Kitui has the capacity to produce and export honey to the international market.
He emphasized on more farmer training and the use of modern bee harvesting equipment by farmers to get quality honey
The County Government has over the last two weeks been training bee farmers on the modern ways of honey harvesting in efforts to improve quality and productivity across the county.
