Farm Concern International, FCI; Anglican Development Services -Western and Bungoma County government Department of Agriculture, Livestock, fisheries and livestock through Feed the Future USAID Kenya Agricultural Value chain Enterprises organized a County Trade Fair on 28th October 2016 at Kimobo ACC grounds in Mt. Elgon sub-county.

The theme of the trade fair and exhibition was “Promoting Access to Technology and Information through Linkages for Improved Productivity and Incomes”. The aim of the trade fair was to bring together various agricultural stakeholders and actors in the Dairy, Staples and Horticulture value chains to develop partnership, enhance technology adoption and facilitate market linkages.

The broad objectives of the County Agribusiness trade fair were:

• Imparting best agricultural practice knowledge and skills through technology sharing and adoption in the County for increased farmers’ productivity, food security and income;
• Partnership establishment between smallholder farmers and other business development service providers like banks, insurance companies, technology firms and input companies among others; and
• Enhance partnerships and linkages among the BDS providers and SMEs linkages and access to markets information and trade

Bungoma Governor launching the solar water project

The trade fair attracted 911 participants from across the county and 27 agricultural and financial sectors players that included Seed companies, agro-chemical companies, farmer groups, micro-finance institutions among others. Bungoma County Governor H.E. Hon Kenneth Lusaka was the Chief Guest during the event. Other guests included the Deputy Governor Bungoma County H.E. Hon Hillary Chengwon, SCAO Mt. Elgon among many others. The governor noted that Bungoma County is a food basket hence the community have to embrace new technologies to be at par with the current innovations. 

Farmers were trained on Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs), livestock husbandry, Artificial Insemination (AI), post-harvest management, commercialization, market development and linkages. Value addition, financial management and savings, simple irrigation technologies, environmental conservation, conservative agriculture and partnership development with business services provision were among other training areas covered by the various players present during the trade fair. A total sales of Ksh 11,210.00 was accrued by the exhibitors during the trade fair.