This archive report was first published on 19 August 2019.
On August 19, 2019, the Kenyan government announced a significant investment in the livestock sector, allocating 2.3 billion shillings to the Kenya Animal Genetic Resource Centre to establish a sexed semen production technology.
The Centre's board chairman, Dr. Geoffrey Kamau, emphasized the need to improve dairy and beef livestock among small-scale farmers, who are crucial to the country's food security.
Of the allocated funds, 400 million shillings will be used to construct a goat Artificial Insemination station, a first-of-its-kind facility in Africa.
Experts point to rapid population growth, shrinking land sizes, and increased urbanization as major challenges facing goat farming, exacerbated by inadequate quality breeding stock and semen.
The sexed semen production technology aims to address these issues by subsidizing Artificial Insemination with a female probability of 80-99 percent, significantly reducing the cost of high-quality heifers.
With the new technology, farmers can expect to pay less than 100,000 shillings for a high-quality heifer, down from the current 400,000 shillings spent by some farmers importing dairy cattle.
