Through the proposed County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIPs) programs, set to be established in Kenyan counties to address post-harvest losses, which force farmers to sell their produce cheaply to brokers or feed the surplus to animals. Such losses apply mainly to farmers dealing in produce with a short shelf life, such as tomatoes, avocados and bananas.
Council of Governors (CoG) Chair Anne Waiguru said CAIPs are designed to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to engage in significant domestic and international trade through export diversification and value addition.
“This creates a great opportunity to grow jobs along the various value chains, raise incomes and close rural-urban inequality gaps as locals also participate in the global supply chain through value addition,” said Waiguru.
The Kirinyaga governor added that some counties started getting ready for the establishment of industrial parks through initiatives such as constructing aggregation centres for agricultural produce as well as organising farmers into groups or cooperatives for group marketing.
Source: standardmedia.co.ke