Livestock keeping in Garissa County

Livestock farming, which is part of the culture and heritage of people from the northern part of Kenya has been earmarked as a potential source of income for the local communities in the region.

Cattle are an important economic asset to residents of Garissa county. Most of these people engage themselves in pastoralism. People in Garissa county provide sources of livelihood through milk and meat production and market sales.

Over the past decade, the importance of the cattle trade among these food economy groups has been increasing due to the high value of cattle and the ever increasing seasonal demand for slaughtering and restocking in other parts of Kenya and Tanzania.

A research showed that 50% of beef consumed in the whole of East Africa is generated from Kenya. the challenge is that there is very low commercialization in Kenya’s livestock production sector, yet there is room for investments and expansion in the sector. Among the opportunities to be explored in this sector include meat and milk processing. There is also market in hide and skin that if well explored, can give great returns.

Garissa county tends to be one of the counties with the highest potential in livestock keeping. Most of the people here majorly concentrate on cattle keeping and they happen to earn over Sh.1.8 billion shillings on their sales in both domestic and overseas markets.

This brings about the urgency of putting up a meat and milk processing plant in the county. This plant will lead to milk and meat processing for both local and international markets. There will be production of high value milk products such as milk powder, fermented milk and butter for export, thus generating income to the county as a whole. of looking after their livestock.

The high production rates of meat and milk need such plants so as to save the residents from middlemen who have to get a share of whatever little profits the people get for their livestock.  This plant will make it easy for the farmers to adapt to the modern ways of livestock keeping.

Dipping services are also key to good livestock keeping. There is need for a modernized cattle dips and for the other livestock as well. This is an area that will be of great profit for the investor as the residents will at all times use the services so as to prevent their animals from the frequent animal diseases and attack that lead to great losses.  

Garissa is one of the counties that have are not yet well developed thus they still cling to the traditional methods. Introduction of technology in livestock keeping practices will be of help to the county. There are also investment openings for improvement in technology infrastructure such as packing, storage and transportation.

Article by Vera Shawiza.