Kisii County governor James Ongwae has accepted understaffing with extension officers to educate the county residents on farming and other domestic activities.
Speaking on Thursday in Kisii Cultural Hall during a public engagement forum to review the county government’s achievements, Ongwae promised to allocate Sh600 million to employ more extension officers.
Governor Ongwae noted that the few extension officers in the county have limited knowledge and said they would train them so that they provide extensive service to the locals.
“We have few extension officers but my government will allocate Sh600 million in the coming financial year so that we can have more staff to help Kisii residents,” noted Ongwae.
He said that the county government will also train the current officers so that they can give wide service to farmers.
“It is because most of these officers have specialised in a given area - either in agriculture, livestock or veterinary which makes it a bit difficult for them to handle other areas,” added Ongwae.
The county CeC for Agriculture Vincent Sagwe said that they have a serious hit whereby the ratio of extension officers to households stand at 1:600.
Sagwe However said that the few officers have managed to go round the county to educate farmers on how to improve their production, an activity he said had a positive response, though he indicated that there is need to have more officers to help farmers understand various ways of farming.
“Number of the officers is way below average to international standards, but we are trying hard to see that we have helped our residents the much we can,” said Sagwe.