County Executive for Agriculture, Livestock Development, and Fisheries Antony Apalia today led the ministry staff in fruit seedlings planting exercise in the Koono Irrigation Scheme.

The 200 mango seedlings were procured through the Agriculture Sector Development Support Programme (ASDSP) and distributed to farmers in the Koono and Nadoto Irrigation schemes.

CECM Dr. Apalia said he was impressed by the hard work demonstrated by farmers and assured that the county government would capacity-build farmers on modern farming as part of the effort to increase productivity.

He said the planting of the trees was in line with President Ruto’s tree planting campaign drive that aims to plant 15 billion trees by 2032.

Dr. Apalia advised farmers to be rational with their produce to enable them to access markets easily and warned that overpricing risked driving away potential customers.

In Nadoto, Agriculture and Land Reclamation Chief Officer Janerose Tioko spearheaded the mango seedlings exercise and emphasized the aspect of crop integration to farmers.

She elaborated on the plans put the department to rehabilitate irrigation schemes and provide farm inputs for increased productivity.

Director for Agriculture Aaron Nanok said the mango seedlings in irrigation schemes would provide nutritional value and address cases of persistent malnutrition.

The grafted high-value mango varieties distributed include van dyke, Kent, and apple mango varieties.

ASDSP County Coordinator, Bonface Okita, said the provision of high-value seedlings to farmers as well as training was in line with the programme goal of transforming agriculture production into commercially viable enterprises that ensure sustainable food and nutrition security.