Cassava growing for food security in Kenya

Dear Friends,

My community is extremely grateful for the purchase of the mill to grind cassava to make food staples.  The income of our community has increased greatly.  I am not through though.  My goal is to keep working to help my community to be as prosperous as possible.  It is in that vein that I relay the information below.

Dr. Joseph Kamau (a cassava expert from the Ministry of Agriculture) told the PATHWAYS scholars a story at the PATHWAYS annual meeting in 2008.  It was a story of a Nigerian who came to Kenya and lacked cassava gari- Nigeria’s staple food.  The Nigerian man decided to hire a small plot of land and started growing cassavas.  Later, he purchased a bigger plot of land and grow more cassava.   Thereafter, he started a small processing plant to add value to the cassavas that he was producing. Recently, he put up even another factory.  He mainly exports cassava products to foreign markets.  It is amazing that he is the only person doing that in the greater Eastern Africa region.  In Dr. Kamau's words, " he is minting money."

I have always desired to expose our community to such an experience so that at least they know what the cassavas that they are growing can be processed into. When I was on a long university vacation in January, I decided to go to the Ministry of Agriculture Headquarters to seek assistance. After 5 visits, I was introduced to one – Dr. Martha  Sila. She is the National head of the Root – crops Division. I absolutely narrated to her the story of our project, the support of PATHWAYS, of you, the Global Giving community and our objectives. She was impressed. She agreed to sponsor us to visit the Nigerian’s factories, as I had requested. I was pushing for 100 community members to participate, but she limited the number to 60 because they wanted to see only one bus used.

The 60 participants were selected as a perfect representative of the community:  women, men, youth, middle-aged and the aged. They visited last month. They went to the 2 factories. One is at Kasikeu, in the interior of Sultan Hamud and the other is at the lower end of  the Makueni  County. This is a 8 – hour one way journey from our area. All the expenses of the exposure tour were catered for.

The community members  were very excited and motivated. They were more than elated for experiencing what they could only imagine before.  Please see the photos of the trip.

Thank you for your continued support- you are changing lives for the better!

Michael

Links:

• PATHWAYS Leadership for Progress

Murang'a County, Kenya

Dear Friends,

I am very excited to announce to you that we were able to purchase and install the mill to grind the cassava. The community is so happy! The building housing the mill was also renovated and electricity availed with the owner's assistance.  The machine installation was completed on Friday, 17th February.  The milling operation started immediately.

One of the great advantages of the mill is that the machines cannot only mill cassavas but also grains including corn.  Another advantage is the reduced cost.  We decided that the mill would be a social enterprise for the benefit of the community. Therefore the price charged for the milling service has been heavily subsidized. For 3kg of chopped cassavas or grains, we are charging Ksh. 10 (less than $0.10). The other millers charge Ksh. 30 for the 3kg of cassavas or grains. This is a great relief to a community wallowing in abject poverty. Plus, we are very sure that the income accruing is enough to sustain the mill and support other activities in the project.

Finally, another advantage is the reduced price for milling.  Before the mill you helped us purchase was put in place, the community members would have to purchase the milling service 7 kilometres away at Sabasaba town.  Now, the mill is so close!  Women are particularly excited and relieved of the agony and time spent in walking the long distance. They can now attend to more chores. Beyond any shred of doubt, the mill has proved to be a great achievement in the fight for food security.  We can’t thank you enough!

Please see attached the following photos.

Photo a : The building housing the mill. Remember, this is the building that appears on our GlobalGiving page.  But this time, the front is painted blue.

Photo b  : The 2 machines. On the right is the crusher that crushes chopped cassavas and grains. On the left, is the roller machine that finally grinds the crushed cassavas and grains into flour.

Photos c & d  : The trained operator packing the flour into customers' bags.

On behalf of our community, I sincerely thank you for supporting us in acquiring a mill. Surely, this is a milestone towards achieving food security.  You have surely changed many lives for the better while helping alleviate hunger!

Warm regards,

Michael Murigi.

Links:

• PATHWAYS Leadership for Progress website
• video of Michael's project June 2011