Ngilu targets mass Artificial
Insemination for Kitui cattle
By Martin Masai
KITUI
Governor Kaluki Ngilu this week opens a new front for wealth creation to fight
poverty for Kitui people.The
plan targets mass artificial insemination for Kitui’s cattle beginning Wednesday January 16 2019.
Governor
Ngilu is scheduled to launch the initiative at Mbitini Market in Kitui Rural ,
with the exercise kicking off in all other sub-counties in coming days.
The
move will begin the actualization of the pledge by the governor to create
wealth for Kitui people by improving their cattle so that they can compete on
equal basis or even better at the market place, with cattle from other parts of
Kenya.
Wealth
Creation is the Fifth Pillar of Governor Ngilu’s manifesto. Other pillars are
Food and Water, Affordable Healthcare, Education and Youth Development and
Women Empowerment. She has rolled out initiatives aimed at accomplishing each
of the goals.
The
project aims at changing the traditional livestock kept in Kitui by locally
producing cross-breeds of Friesian, Guernsey, Jersey, Ayrshire Brown Swiss,
Boran and Sahiwal among others, that can cope with the county’s climatic
conditions.
Agriculture
and Water Minister Mr. Emmanuel Kisangau says the county is targeting 250,000
cattle on the whole, with a focus to adding the herds by 60,000 in May 2019.
The
county is using a synchronization method that manipulates a herds’ ovulation
cycle and induces a large number of females to be on heat in a short
predetermined time.
When
the manipulation is triggered, it starts a new follicular wave where mass artificial
insemination can be administered to hundreds of cows that are ready for
conception.
The
main objective of the program is to produce both pure and cross breed dairy
animals
from
the local dairy herd and the local indigenous Zebu and Boran cattle herds.
Mr.
Kisangau says “ The dams (mothers) will be the animals owned by Kitui farmers
while the sire bulls will be through selected semen straws from Kenya Animal
Genetic Resources Centre (KAGRC- Kabete )”, he said. He adds that the second
objective is to get many calves at one go, timing of calving time to coincide
with plenty of animal pasture and hasten the speed of genetic upgrading of
Kitui’s dairy herd.
Mr. Kisangau
says the program will reduce the cost of artificial insemination by doing it
enmass.
He added the County Government of Kitui had already has purchased some of the
Semen
for the listed breeds.
