Baringo County establishes a hay storage facility to provide surplus during drought

Livestock farmers drawn from Lelmen location of Salawa Division in Baringo County are embracing a new pasture storage technique that will cushion them from losses and provide surplus when drought strikes.

The 13 million shillings hay storage facility built by the Government and the World Bank will enable the farmers to harvest their pasture and store it in the hay shed for later.

According to the project chairman, Solomon Kiboino the facility is currently being run by a self-help group who charge each farmer five shillings to store one bale of hay for three months.

Kiboino adding that that they have already banked over 2300 hay bales in the shed from 5 farmers for the season.

However, the farmers through Dr Samson Cherambus said they lacked adequate equipment to harvest and package the pasture and would still need support from the partners.

County director of Livestock Richard Bundotich promised to assist the farmers especially on mechanization where they will continue offering the machines they have at subsidized costs.

The farmers were responding to a team of project financiers from World Bank and IGAD on the sustainability of the project once they exit in the end of the year after the 5 year program comes to an end.