Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti has urged farmers to take advantage of the early onset of rains and plant in order to enhance food security in the County.

Speaking at Kathaana in Kangundo on Tuesday as she launched the distribution of 74.9 tons of certified seeds to 37,450 farmers across the county, Governor Ndeti said the rains which were expected to start towards the end of March had started early thus farmers could expect good yields if they planted and tilled their crops.

She said Machakos County is gradually moving from being food insecure to an agricultural powerhouse having been ranked 6th nationally in production of maize in the year 2025.

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Governor Ndeti asked residents not to rush to sell their farm produce cheaply whenever they had a surplus but store it for future use as the climate had become increasingly unpredictable.

"Take these seeds and plant them with hope. When you succeed, Machakos succeeds," she told the farmers.

She said majority of residents relied on farming and that is why the County government had come up with initiatives to support farmers.

The distributed certified seeds are pest resistant,climate resilient for higher yields,she said.

The seeds will be planted on over 7,000 acres of land with expected yield of over 93,800 bags.

She said farming in Machakos faced various challenges including climate change,high cost of production and market accessibility adding that the County Government had mapped climate conditions across the County and was distributing appropriate seeds for each climatic area.

"In order to ensure maximum impact for this program we have mapped the climate conditions for each area.For areas with high rainfall we will give maize and beans, for drier areas we will give cowpeas and pigeon peas,"she said.

The Governor said timing was everything in farming and ordered that the seeds reach farmers across the county within 48 hours.

The Governor said the Agriculture Department is currently well staffed with qualified officers who advise farmers accordingly.

She said her administration has registered 200,000 farmers for subsidised fertiliser and asked those who had not registered to do so.

The County government recently hired 39 extension officers domiciled at Ward level.

She appealed to residents to take advantage of the rains to plant more trees and grass for livestock feeding as well as dig terraces to harvest water.