Kisii county governor in a suit in a recent event. [Photo/Wycliffe]
Kisii County government will leverage on farmer support institutions in its bid to expand agricultural productivity and create job openings for youth and women for better livelihoods in the county.
According to Kisii county Governor James Ongwae, they will increase funds to the sector as it has proved to be having more importance and hence will increase public investment in agricultural research, farmer innovation and farmer extension centers will accelerate growth in the high potential agricultural sector.
“This move would provide a spring board to economic freedom to thousands of vulnerable youth seeking employment in the County`s urban areas” he added
The county boss said plans were underway for strategic partnerships with agricultural experts in the private and public sectors in months to come aimed at putting the agricultural sector on the desired pathway to becoming the country's key economic driver.
Speaking on Monday morning when he met various saccos officials at a Kisii Hotel the governor said his government would not only ride on the strategic partnerships to establish the struggling pyrethrum and Irish potato sectors but would also use such partnerships in marketing value added products from local enterprises related to the sectors.
“Farming still remains the economic activity of Kisii county residents and we won’t let it down as all we want is to see independent farmers” he added
Ongwae who has already alluded to budget cuts on the country's increasing recurrent expenditure said his proposition was to invest in multiple economic stimulus programs in the spirit of fast tracking social cohesion that he said has been increasingly evasive to his predecessor.