Siaya Invests KES 19 Million in Revival of Cotton Ginneries

By Eric Omwombo 

The county government of Siaya is investing KES 19 million towards reviving cotton ginnery in the region.

According to Agriculture executive Elizabeth Adongo, we have prioritized funds in the budget to revive the cotton ginnery that will equally help in the manufacturing of edible oil.

“The ginnery machines we shall procure will also help in the production of edible oil,” said Adongo.

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Adongo spoke at a meeting that was chaired by Siaya Governor James Orengo and attended by Irrigation Principal Secretary Empantus Kimotho and Trade PS Alfred K’Ombudo.
Adongo said her department is committed to supporting agricultural value chains for the benefit of the locals and commercialization.

Governor Orengo said the revival of the cotton sector would re-activate the region’s economy.
He regretted that it was the Creation of the boards that saw the collapse of cotton production adding previously when Indians were doing the business, farmers would get their pay on delivery.

“The farmers abandoned cotton production and opted for maize which they said was rewarding them with profits.
Orengo said his government is committed to ensuring cotton grows and thrives in Siaya.

The CIDP for Siaya is anchored on Agriculture and the blue economy so proper investments would go towards reviving key agricultural value chains.

Orengo at the same time welcomed the Lower irrigation project whose operations will start at the end of March this year.

Orengo said Siaya and Counties under LREB if given necessary support by the National government can produce 60 per cent of rice and that can help address the deficit
“LREB Counties enjoys good climatic conditions and fertile soils that promote rice growing,” said Orengo
However, Irrigation Principal Secretary Empantus Kimotho announced that the 25000 of Acers under the lower Nzoia irrigation project are ready for rice production.

According to Irrigation Principal Secretary Empantas Kimotho, we are now coming to the tail end of the project and 25 per cent which is 2500 acres is ready. In fact at the end of this month(March) will have water flowing.

We had a few challenges with the National
But it has been sorted out. The team is in Siaya including the World Bank for certain t and its readiness.

The PS said the remaining part which is 75 percent will be completed in March next year(2025).

Mr Kimotho said that Mwea used to give us an economy of around 6 billion which later improved to Sh 17 billion after the damning of the dam.

Its average production increased to 35000 from 25,000.
Mr K’Ombudo said he would ensure farmers get markets for their products.

“We have a role to work closely with farmers on commercialization aspect to deal with post-harvest loses that accrued from the endeavours,” said PS trade
“We shall also support several critical areas, especially on cooperation and aggregation.

The PS said that they have several instruments that will help achieve our goals. One of them is pegged on a cluster of principal Secretaries which is chaired by me.

Through it, we work on how to enhance the value chains of rice, cotton and edible oil.
This cluster brought together investment, industries, trade, cooperatives, SMEs, Finance, Planning and Industrial development.

“We are going to work closely with the PS. We have several instruments of the State  Department of Trade one of which is the warehouse where we sit(System Council). we are encouraging that we work with Counties on the development of the warehouse facilities that are certified and have operators that can turn whatever in stores as an asset for purposes of financial intermediation” the Trade PS Afred K’Ombudo has said.

The PS said already a bill is in parliament meant to upgrade how the warehouse receipt system works and ways of deploying it.