5th General Meeting of Nakuru Value Chain Platform
SHEPBiz project is promoting Avocado value chain in Nakuru county. In the year 2022, the project spearheaded the formation of the avocado value chain platform which brings together all value chain players in the county. Members to the platform are drawn from input suppliers, producers, aggregators, government regulator agencies and the county government officers. The composition brings along a rich mixture that is able to champion the agenda of avocado value chain with the aim of developing the value chai into a profitable venture.
To ensure the platform achieves its mandate, the platform meets twice a year to deliberate on the issues affecting the value chain and devise ways and strategies to move the chain forward. This year’s fifth VCP meeting was scheduled and held on 1st August 2024 at Legacy Hotel in Nakuru town. A total of 42 (30 Male, 12 Female) members attended the meeting representing all the nodes of the value chain.
Key agendas deliberated during the meeting among them were; reviewing of the planned activities during the 4th VCP meeting, planning of priority activities for the July- December 2024 period and getting update from the VCP officials on the progress made by the Value chain platform. Some of the reported achievements during the January- June 2024 period are; farmer trainings have been conducted by county staff through field days, I Grower Limited has also held trainings on best harvesting techniques an post-harvest handling and renewal of nursery operators licenses by HCD. It was further reported that 5 farmers clusters have been formed in Subukia sub county where one cluster has graduated into Community Based Organization (CBO) for the purposes of streamlining marketing. County government and national government were also reported to have supplied avocado seedlings to farmers in bid to expand acreage under avocado in the county. The VCP officials informed the meeting that registration of the platform as an association is in progress with registration documents being with registrar.
The meeting further agreed on the activities to be carried out during the July- December, 2024 key among them continuous farmer trainings on agronomy, county staff to map out all unregistered mother blocks and avocado nurseries and share information with HCD for necessary action. I Grower limited will establish traceability mechanism for the avocado sold by December, 2024. Agricultural Technology Development Centre was tasked to carry out capacity building on water harvesting technologies to address the critical challenge of inadequate water for both nursery operators and producers.
As a Way forward, the meeting agreed to re look into the strengthening the leadership of the Value Chain Platform. Next meeting will be held in late December, 2024 or early January, 2025.
