Bungoma farmers receive avocado seedlings

Bungoma County Executive Committee Member (CEC) of Agriculture Chirasha Makanda addressing the media on September 27, 2019 at his office. [Micah Sali]

Farmers in Bungoma have received 17,000 avocado seedlings from the county government to plant alongside sugar cane.

Bungoma becomes the second county in Western region after Kakamega to venture into avocado farming.

Recently Kakamega distributed 10,000 avocado seedlings to sugar cane farmers.

Speaking on Friday, County Executive Committee Member for Agriculture Mathews Makanda said cane farming alone is not sustainable.

Mr Makanda said there is a ready international market for avocados.

He said in the next three years, his docket hopes Bungoma will be a major avocado exporter.

“We have identified avocados as a potential income earner for our farmers due to their high demand both locally and internationally," Makanda said.

"Despite Kenya exporting 191,000 tonnes of avocados annually, the demand is still high.”

County Horticultural Officer Benson Masinde urged more farmers to embrace avocado farming saying the seedlings that they have received will produce avocados with a 13 per cent oil content.

"This fruit is rich with minerals. It has 20 kinds of vitamins and other minerals such as potassium which controls blood pressure. It also has low sugar and contains fibre," Masinde said