Livestock breeding will receive a boost after the government set aside over Ksh. 500 million to establish a bull station in Kitale.
Deputy President William Ruto said that the Bull station will be set up in Trans Nzoia County to increase animal husbandry and productivity.
Speaking during the official opening of the Brookside livestock breeders show and sale at Jamhuri Park Nairobi, the deputy president said the plant will make farmers to get great yields of dairy cows at a cheaper price
“The government has already set aside Ksh. 500 million to set up a semen plant at the Agriculture Development Corporation farms (ADC) in Kitale soon, this will help our farmers get good semen for dairy animals and great bulls,” said the deputy president.
“We have realized that our farmers lack better semen to breed great animals both dairy and beef and that’s why we are coming up with the station,” he added.
The deputy president also revealed that the government will set up a number of liquid nitrogen plants in the country.
He said the liquid nitrogen plants will be vital in preservation and transportation of high quality semen for cattle breeding.
“We have already completed some others in Eldoret ,Nyanadarua, Meru Sotik Kirinyaga and Kabete.” He informed.
He added “The primary objective of making sure we have the liquid nitrogen plants across the country is because it improves storage and reduces the cost of semen by half and makes semen available closest to farmers to every corner of the republic.”
He also said that the government will increase the availability of the plants all over the nation.
“Animal breeds improvement through Artificial Insemination is among the priorities of the government and upon completion of this plants we will make sure we increase access to them by farmers,” said Ruto.
Other liquid nitrogen plants will be set up in Kakamega, Kitale, Kisii, Marsabit and kilifi.
The deputy president also said that the cost of vaccination to farmers will be cut by half and that the vaccination will be done once annually.
“I am happy to announce that we are transiting our vaccines from water based to oil based which means that we are reducing the cost of vaccination to farmers by half so that we can only have vaccinations once in a year instead of currently twice a year, the first phase of vaccinations under this new program will be launched in September this year,” said Ruto.
This he said will increase farmer’s productivity of beef and milk by reducing disease prevalence around the country.
He urged farmers to partner with county government to ensure that diseases are controlled to improve production of milk and beef.
“We will be working with stake holder in the agriculture sector to make sure we improve not only earnings to our farmers but also improve the quality of available products to satisfy the local market in Kenya and access the East Africa market and beyond,” He said.
The second in command also condemned cattle theft terming it something of the past.
“We should tell our people to stop stealing cattle from neighbours, we are past that especially in this century,” remarked Ruto.
Others present during the event were the Cabinet secretary Felix Koskei, Brookside Dairy chief executive Muhoho Kenyatta and a number of permanent secretaries.
Dairy and Livestock farming contributes 12 percent of the Kenyan economy.
The cabinet secretary said that the taxation on animal feed has been waived by the government.