Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru. Photo/SoftKenya
Kirinyaga County has entered into a Sh5 billion public-private partnership to set up 10 industrial hubs for value addition of agricultural produce.In the deal, private developers will be required to meet facility and equipment costs while the county would provide land for the building of the parks.Farmer groups and cooperatives societies are targets of this projects as Kirinyaga will pump in Sh1 billion into the venture
“The final model will be that of the private sector running the parks while we manage production and supply as the county government. The returns for the farmers will be 80 per cent and the 20 per cent will deducted and saved for their sacco," said governor Anne Waiguru.The model would guarantee farmers a stable and structured market, benchmark their returns at optimum as well as provide them saving for borrowing purposes.Ms Waiguru further added the projects would be fully implemented by the end of next year.Ann Waiguru also said the project was ambitious but tenable since middlemen reap on average 40 per cent of returns from the farmers’ gross returns while wastage and swindling in the markets eat a further five per cent in the returns and price fluctuations reduce by another 20 per cent of farmer’s income.