The County Government of Kakamega has promised to revive coffee farming in Likuyani Sub County to help enrich farmers as well as increase the County’s revenue. Speaking in the area, the County Executive Committee member for Agriculture Kulati Wangia urged farmers to embrace the crop which he said will play a crucial role in increasing their domestic earnings and creating job opportunities.
Wangia regretted that the crop which used to dominate the area had been wiped with the land being used for maize and sugarcane farming. The CEC said farmers in the area should forget past tribulations in the coffee industry adding that currently proper measures to guard
their interests had been put in place.
He disclosed that the County Government had procured 20,000 coffee seedlings to be given to farmers from the area. “For long farmers in Likuyani have lacked a viable cash crop forcing
them to try sugar cane farming,” he said pointing out that coffee had the potential of reaping fortunes in the popular maize growing zones.
He said coffee would be grown alongside maize compared to cane which threatened food crop farming. Noting that the area was a high maize growing zone, Wangia warned that if proper measures were not put in place it risked food shortages in future.
“This area is well known for maize production and the fact that we are advising you to do crop diversification does not mean that you stop growing maize,” warned Wangia. He encouraged farmers to embrace both cash and food crop farming arguing that for the area to develop into a vibrant agri-based economy both farming was crucial.
He, however, said area soils did not favour sugarcane farming warning that the current plunge into the crop’s farming was not sustainable.