The County Government is building capacities of various actors to deal with the rising numbers of unregistered nurseries and sale of uncertified fruit tree seedlings. This is through a collaboration with the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).
The initiative has seen more than 40 ward agricultural officers being sensitized on horticultural nursery surveillance. The officers who underwent a two-day training are expected to scout their wards and ensure all nurseries are registered and above all follow the requirements demanded by the regulator.
Agriculture CEC, Dr. Immaculate Maina, says the County is creating a database of all nurseries in the counties. “This will help in identifying the nurseries and build capacity of the operators in addition to ensuring the sale of certified fruit seedlings and be a major contributor to tree planting activities contributing to the National forest cover, Dr. Maina added. She was speaking during a capacity building workshop on horticultural nursery surveillance.
Dr. Maina said the County will continue to offer free training to new operators and already existing ones across the County to deal with the uneven distribution of nurseries across the County. She added that the County is keen on promoting agroforestry by ensuring farmers have trees compatible with crops planted on their farms producing more output and benefiting them both economically and environmentally.
AFA’s Horticultural officer, Ms. Antonina Luta, said that the officers have been trained to conduct online registration which will help in traceability and as a regulator stringent measures have been put in place to reduce the number of roadside nurseries selling uncertified seedlings to farmers.
