Farmers in Makueni County in Kenya are set to benefit from a Sh210 million grain value addition factory funded by the World Bank through the Kenya support for Devolution Programme implemented by the Makueni County Government.
Executive Committee Member (ECM) of Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock and Fisheries Development Mr. Nzioki King’ola announced that the factory that was initiated three years ago will oversee the processing of beans, pigeon peas, cowpeas and grams and packages so as to add value and increase income for the farmers and cushion them from exploitation of middlemen.
He made the statement during an inspection of the Makueni County Integrated Grain Value Addition Plant by the three governors from Ukambani region namely Dr. Alfred Mutua (Machakos), Charity Ngilu (Kitui and Kivutha Kibwana (Makueni) at Makindu.
“The factory is 99% complete and we intend to construct silos for storage in the next two weeks. We are targeting local and external markets that are geared towards maximising profits that will benefit the farmers in the Ukambani region,” said King’ola.
Maximum profits
“Through cooperatives, farmers will be mobilized to produce adequate pulses for the plant and also they will get collective access to farm inputs hence reap maximum profits and reduce exploitation by middlemen,” he added.
The factory has the production capacity of 2 metric tonnes per hour that translates to 32 metric tonnes per day and night shift. Plant Manager Mr. Maluka Waema said they are currently packaging the pulses in 50 Kgs- 100 Kgs before they start packaging for 1kg and 2kgs for supermarkets and wholesale outlets.
“The plant will have a raw material storage area of 200 metric tonnes (3,300 bags of 90 kgs) with a 170 metric tonnes of (2000 bags of 90 Kgs) at the finished product storage area. We do value addition to the pulses through pre-cleaning, drying, cleaning and polishing in order to produce the best product in the market,” said Waema.
According to data from the County department of Agriculture, over 230,000 hectares are put under pulse production every year with an average of 190,000 metric tonnes. Makueni Governor Prof. Kivutha Kibwana said the project will offer the residents job opportunities through the value addition chain, repackaging, milling and blending of the flour from pulses.
