Kisumu County's Executive Committee member for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Henry Obade has proposed a Bill that allows kitchen gardens in informal settlements in efforts to beat hunger and malnutrition.
The minister said the guidelines will enable residents of Kisumu town, especially those in the slums, to plant vegetables and fruits on their small backyards to boost food security and fight poverty.
According to the draft policy document yet to be approved by the county's cabinet, residents will be allowed to practice intensive farming of vegetables such as sukuma wiki, tomatoes, onions and beans.
The minister is championing the concept of vertical farming.
The technology allows growing of crops in large, bag-gardens, enabling farmers to grow vegetables such as sukuma wiki, spinach and amaranth on one square metre.
"High-yielding bag gardening is a simple and cheap to implement concept with rewarding benefits at a subsistence level. It is very efficient for informal settlements, small-scale farms and even institutions like hospitals," he said.
He said if approved by the cabinet passed in the County Assembly, the high-yielding food security technology developed by Real Impact to maximise land and water use will be rolled out in the slums.
The large size vertical bags have holes in them where stem seedlings are planted.
They come in small medium and large sizes.