May 12^th 2018                        By Cheruiyot korir

Cabinet Secretary for ICT Joe Mucheru has said that the Ministry in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and County governments plan to roll out the first ever farmers’ census in the country

Mr Mucherur said, the census planned to run for the next 120 days country wide, will involve capture farmer bio data, size of the farm, the location, and the type of crops and livestock reared by the farmer.

The Cabinet Secretary who was addressing Governors and County Executive Committee for Agriculture  at a Naivasha hotel said the farmers census is meant to develop a data bank that will enable government provide evidence based planning,  design relevant policies and regulations, and provide real time information to farmers on market trends, weather forecast and pests and disease control among others.

Mr Mucheru asked farmers to volunteer relevant information once the exercise starts saying the system will revolutionaries the agricultural sector once implemented. The Cabinet Secretary regretted that the country import tomatoes and potatoes worth millions of shillings annually because of lack of accurate information of availability, location, produce type and prices of the commodity

The a Cabinet Secretary assured farmers and investors that the government was taking steps for the security of data and computers noting that Data Protection Bill was waiting presidential accent while the Computer and cyber Security Bill has undergone public participation and was at its final stages.

The Chairman of the Council of Governors, Josphat Nanok assured the government of County governments’ support on the farmers’ census.

Mr. Nanok appealed to the government to subsidized cost of cheap farm mechanization by 50 percent to facilitate acquisition of the equipment.

Mr. Nanok also called on the national government to support the counties to build capacity of farmers’ census enumerators.