The county government of Laikipia, through Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture (KCSAP) co-coordinating office, engaged Egerton University on enterprise development on sorghum value chain. The services contracted included flagging opportunities in sorghum and recruiting farmers to engage in sorghum production. The recruited farmers have been taken through training on sorghum production (land preparation, selection of suitable varieties, sowing, weed management, insect pests, and disease management), and post-harvest management (harvesting, drying, threshing, and storage. Most of the common interest groups on sorghum have formed producer organizations to help in marketing sorghum grains and later use the same to acquire inputs.
A good number of farmers have shown interest in sorghum production. So far, 102 farmer-groups have been recruited in six wards in Laikipia County – the wards are OL-Moran, Rumuruti, Salama, Ngobith, Tigiti and Segera.
The various farmer groups have formed producer organizations (PO) to aid in aggregation of grain, facilitate sourcing of market and input acquisition. The POs are still at juvenile stages and with good leadership they will stabilize and help in sorghum production.
An evaluation of sorghum genotypes for suitability in baking was done earlier. Some five genotypes were identified as good for baking with an established sorghum-to-wheat flour ratio for baking. Promotion of these products is being extended to community households, boarding schools, and bakeries. Products for testing and promotion are homemade Mandasi, Chapati, and Buns.
Common interest groups of dairy farmers have benefited through targeted training on sorghum production, silage making from sorghum and home feed formulation to reduce production cost.