Cattle keepers in West Pokot County who were affected by landslides late last year have benefited from 1000 doses of semen for dairy and beef cattle courtesy of Kenya Animal Genetic Resource Center (KAGREC) to boost livestock production. Speaking after handing over the semen to area County boss, Kenya Animal Genetic Resource Centre Managing Director Dr. Kios said that the organization donated 30 artificial insemination (AI) containers to cooperative groups and committed to set up a goats’ breed station to develop nucleus centre to boost goat milk production.
He said that the organization will also give out a ‘magic’ 50 cow to improving livestock breeding in the pastoral region. “The cow gives out 20 liters of milk. It takes a short time like two years and can be 400 kilograms.” Dr David Kios also announced that KAGREC will sponsor a field day in West Pokot which will be preceded by a three-day capacity building of farmers in modern day farming practices. “The field day will cost Kshs 2 million for a sensitization on how to use AI. We shall have experts on AI breeding and sensitize farmers to produce milk and meat,” he said.
West Pokot Governor John Lonyangapuo said that the boost and collaboration will help improve milk production in the semi arid area adding that the economy of the area will be driven by dairy farming. He said that 8 wards in the County have prioritized for dairy animals keeping. “Wards like Chepareria, Siyoi, Lelan, Batei, Tapach, Mnagei, Kapenguria, Lomut are doing well in milk production,” he said. He cited that the County sells 50,000 liters of milk daily to Brookside company thus farmers sells more than 100,000 liters of milk daily locally. “We have a plan with Israel and soon we are starting a milk processing plant. We aim at getting 30-40 litres per cow,” he said.