Posted on February, 7, 2019 at 07:54 am
KNA
Egerton University is seeking to boost value addition for cassava, which is largely consumed as a subsistence food in many rural households in eastern Africa.
The three-year programme funded by the Master Card Foundation through the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture also targets to create jobs, increase food and nutrition security, as well as improve cassava quality, productivity and its marketability both locally and abroad.
The project dubbed “Cassava Value Chain Upgrading for Secure Food, Nutrition and Incomes”’ is currently incorporating 6,000 smallholder farmers in Njoro, Lower Subukia and Solai sub-counties of Nakuru.
It is envisioned that the initiative will eventually spur growth of cottage industries in areas where the food crop is cultivated across the country.
Project head, Prof Richard Mulwa said rural communities in the targeted areas were set to benefit from the value addition chain training since the project will engage in market-oriented agriculture, where cassava growers will be linked to industrial manufacturers.
He said cassava has a huge unexploited potential as raw material for a wide array of value-added products, from coarse flour to high-tech starch gels, adding that modified cassava starch can be used in the manufacture of alcohol, animal feeds and baked products. The crop, he said, is also an important base in the manufacture of plywood, paper and textiles.
“These are some of the players we will be linking our cassava farmers with. We are also very keen on the quality of cassava raw material churned out by growers,” Mulwa added.
It is expected that once the initiative is rolled out countrywide over 100,000 people, 60 per cent of them women, will acquire clean and quality planting materials and will be assisted to improve productivity and marketability of the food crop as a raw material for industrial needs.
Source: MediaMax Network