‘Nation’, Elgon Kenya sign pact to educate farmers

Elgon Kenya managing director, Mr Bimal Kantaria and NMG CEO, Mr Joe Muganda during the signing of the contract to promote crop and animal health through Seeds of Gold and online platforms. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • NMG CEO, Mr Joe Muganda, noted that agriculture is the mainstay of most Kenyans accounting for over 60 per cent of the country’s economy.
  • Elgon Kenya managing director, Mr Bimal Kantaria, said the company has also introduced a new weekly column on Seeds of Gold where the company’s animal health expert will be responding to farmers’ questions regarding animal and livestock production.
  • The partnership will run for six months.

Elgon Kenya Ltd, an agri-inputs firm, has signed a partnership with Nation Media Group (NMG) to promote crop and animal health through Seeds of Gold and online platforms.

Through the platforms, farmers would be able to ask questions on crop production, animal health and farm chemicals and get timely advice.

NMG CEO, Mr Joe Muganda, noted that agriculture is the mainstay of most Kenyans accounting for over 60 per cent of the country’s economy, thus, smallholder farmers needed support and information access to enhance their productivity and income.

“We have had a long partnership with Elgon Kenya through Seeds of Gold and National Farmers’ Award Scheme. This new partnership will go a long way towards empowering farmers,” said Mr Muganda yesterday.

Elgon Kenya and NMG also partner in farm clinics, a monthly forum where farmers interact with agriculture experts.

Elgon Kenya managing director, Mr Bimal Kantaria, said the company has also introduced a new weekly column on Seeds of Gold where the company’s animal health expert will be responding to farmers’ questions regarding animal and livestock production.

The column will also run on Taifa Leo.

“Between 40 to 50 per cent of farmers in the rural areas have smartphones which makes it easy to get them and engage online. The platform is very simple to use and  farmers talking to us on our online portal are free to ask their questions even in vernacular since we have employed experts to respond to their needs, “Mr Kantaria said, adding the partnership will run for six months.

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SPEECH BY BIMAL KANTARIA AT THE LAUNCH OF PARTNERSHIP
Today marks a major milestone for Elgon Kenya as we celebrate yet another partnership with the Nation Media Group driven by our shared ethos of putting the customer first and dedication to the industry.

Indeed our partnership with Seeds of Gold has been long, cordial and has touched the lives of millions of smallholder farmers across the country who form the bulk of food producers in the country.

Through the farmers’ clinic scheme that is now headed for the seventh edition we have traversed the country, meeting farmers who interact with experts asking pertinent questions geared towards improving farm productivity and ultimately their livelihoods.

Nation Media Group has equally remained a formidable and worthy partner in our annual National Farmers Award fete, now celebrating its fifth birthday this year that seeks to celebrate ordinary men and women who have put their best foot forward, inspired others and taken farming to another level.

With the awards, we have sought to return dignity to the soils and create a farming revolution. We are proud to say this has been a major success.

With our new partnership, we now seek to reach even more farmers with the right and timely information as our interaction with them over the years has shown a growing thirst for information.

The partnership also extends to Taifa Leo newspaper where we will be sharing more farming information with the Swahili readers.

The idea is to reach a wider audience with this information as possible especially the youth who holds the promise of a food secure Kenya.

Information online in Nation platforms touching on Elgon Kenya will link back to Elgon Kenya website where farmers can learn more about the wide array of innovations and services the company has in store for them.

This is informed by the fact that even with numerous studies having been done on how Kenya can feed itself, it has been evident that the key piece of information that will boost farm productivity is one that the farmers can access directly and one they can easily digest.

Nation Media Group has positioned itself as a market leader in delivery of relevant and credible information that everyday changes lives of ordinary people.

We share the same philosophy.

We have to ensure that farmers grow food from a point of information now more than ever.

Studies have shown that by 2050, nine billion of us will be demanding food grown from seed.

Growing enough quality food from dwindling land will be increasingly difficult and the pressure will be on farmers to maximize yields and produce crops of ever higher quality.

Yet at the heart of reversing this sorry state of affairs lies information access.

While traditionally our partnership with the Nation Media Group has leaned towards information on crop production, we are now adding an animal heath component following the launch of the animal health department by Elgon Kenya.

The unit has been established to respond to growing market demand for livestock products among smallholder farmers especially those who have diversified into livestock farming.

Once again it is quite an honour to be working with the largest media house in the region and with our unrivalled regional market dominance, we look forward to reaching as many farmers with this partnership as possible.


Bimal Kantaria is Elgon Kenya Ltd CEO