Farmers in Bungoma County have been asked to test their soils to enable them reap the maximum yields from their farms.
The County Executive Committee (CEC) member for Agriculture Mr Herbert Kibunguchi said that the County Government had established a laboratory for testing soil noting that over 7,000 farmers in the area have utilised it and encouraged those who had not done so to test their soils for an increase in production.
He was speaking at a farmers’ field day at Bilibili in Tongaren Sub- County, Bungoma County.
Mr Kibunguchi asked farmers in the area to join co-operatives and market their produce as a team and avoid middlemen that he said were exploiting them by offering very low prices for their produce.
He told farmers to diversify production by planting a variety of crops on their farms to minimize loses in the event of changes in the rain fall pattern saying crops are affected differently by the weather.
The host farmer Aggrey Jalenga pointed out that theft of crops in the farms as one of the main challenges facing farming as an activity in the area.
He however asked farmers to practice farming as a business saying most of the farms had the potential of producing enough food as long as they are well utilized.
