Kenyan farmers to be trained on improving export returns

Farmers will benefit from a training program on plant health, that will enable them increase their export volumes, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services has said. Kephis Director, James Onsando said the inspectorate together with the European Commission are currently running a training program dubbed 'better training for for safer food', which is focusing on plant health and protection strategies. "The EU is currently training officers in the Comesa region on how to discharge pesticides, so as to be able to kill insects and eliminate diseases without having leaving high pesticides residues in crops," Onsando said after the official opening of the program in Nairobi. He added that food exporters in the Comesa region have been losing a lot of revenue in exports, due to export markets rejecting the products which have high intoxication from pesticides. "Our officers are being trained so that they can explain to farmers what the export zone in the European Union wants in terms of pesticide application, harvesting, and packaging, so as to improve returns from food export," he said.