Narok — About 98,600 farmers in Narok County have registered in the ongoing National Household Farmers Registration exercise that started early this year.

Narok County Commissioner Isaac Masinde said the number represented 54 per cent of the farmers in the county as the 2019 census showed that there were approximately 181,000 farmers in the county.

Masinde asked farmers to volunteer and register with the Assistant Chiefs so that they could benefit from subsidized farm inputs from the government.

"The number of registered farmers is too low compared to the total number of farmers we have in the county. We want all farmers, whether small scale or large scale, to register with the assistant chief of the area they do farming," he said.

He reiterated that only the registered farmers would benefit from government subsidy as the farmers would apply for the inputs on a digital platform.

The CC continued that the registration exercise was initiated by the State Department of Crops with an aim of establishing a credible National Database of all the farmers.

Masinde said all the 193 assistant chiefs in the county had been issued with a tablet where they feed the details of the farmers in their jurisdiction.

He asked the farmers not to ignore the exercise as the information would help the government to give appropriate subsidies and other farm inputs for improved productivity and profitability in order to attain food security.

"The information will help the government to reach out to the exact farmers according to their specific needs, hence benefit all the farmers in the country," he said.

Some of the details the assistant chief is expected to key in are the official name of the farmer as given in the Identification card, the identification card number, mobile number, sex and the size of the household.