The Kenya forest service, (KFS) has encouraged farmers in Uasin Gishu County to embrace tree farming as an economic activity and stop depending on maize as the only cash crop.
Uasin Gishu County eco conservancy officer, Paul Karanja said that, “Our farmers need to look for alternative economic activities in their farms to increase their income.”.
“Farmers who planted eucalyptus six years ago on idle land are smiling all the way to the bank,” said Karanja.
Adding that investors had put up several eucalyptus treatment plants in the county providing ready market for farmers.
“One acre of land can produce approximately 20 bags of maize annually which translates to Sh 50,000 and in eight years that it takes a eucalyptus tree to mature a maize farmer would get Sh 400,000. Compare this to Sh2.6million a farmer would get from 650 eucalyptus trees planted on the same acreage over a similar period as each tree generates an average of Sh 4000,” he expounded.
According to the county executive in charge of Water, Environment and Natural resources, Mary Njogu, the county plans to plant 10 million trees in all learning institutions within the county by 2017 through the schools greening program.
However, Karanja called on the county government to ensure that the planted tree seedlings were protected from destruction.
He lauded the county government for its efforts to green Eldoret town but hastened to advise that protection measures must be put in place to ensure the tree seedlings were not destroyed.