Construction of a Sh 100 sweet potato-growing processing plant in Migori County, Kenya nears completion. Elijah Gambere, the chief officer in charge of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries confirmed the report and said that the plant will be commissioned later in the year. The European Union-funded factory is one of its kind in Kenya, a key legacy project for Governor Okoth Obado’s administration, particularly in Kuria.
“We are almost there. We have tendered for machines and once the process is over and installation is done, we will be good to go. This Covid-19 thing has really taken us back. Our people would be enjoying the sweet and medicinal bread made from their own crops. That notwithstanding, jobs, good prices for their potatoes and a good business environment will be created by the factory,” said Elijah Gambere.
Sweet potato value chain actors who include producers, vine multipliers, transporters, bankers, traders, aggregators and bakers are already engaging in strategy meetings ahead of the commissioning of the factory.
“We have to build the capacity of our key stakeholders in the value chain in readiness for the factory opening before the end of the year,” said retired chief Otaigo, a sweet potato farmer and member of the county’s Sweet Potato Value Chain Stakeholders Forum.
Instruments For Devolution Advice
“The factory will definitely give us enough puree and flour for baking bread. In fact, we are happy that our people will start eating bread made of their own sweet potatoes, which are medicinal,” said Furaha Marwa, who runs a bread baking cottage industry in Kehancha town.
In an agreement signed in 2018 by the county government and the EU, the county was to provide Sh10 million and ground implementation logistics, while the EU granted Sh100 million for construction of factory structures, purchase of processing machines and capacity building of value chain players.
The deal was struck under the auspices of Instruments For Devolution Advice and Support, and the Local Economic Development. Migori is listed as the second-largest producer of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP), with 11,312 hectares under cultivation. The neighbouring Homa Bay county is the leading producer with 24,268 hectares under production, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Other sweet potato-producing counties are Bungoma (7,480ha), Busia (4,614ha), Siaya (4,150ha), Kisumu (2, 855ha), Kakamega (4277.5ha), Narok (1658.4ha), Bomet(1,210ha), Vihiga(913ha), Machakos (1,973ha), Meru (1,046ha). Over the years, sweet potato production in Migori has been largely unattractive and done on a small scale due to lack of market. Middlemen had taken advantage of the lack of market to exploit peasants. This demoralizing trend hurt production as farmers got low returns.
“We have the capacity to surpass all other counties in sweet potato production, but the problem has always been the market. We are actually happy with Okoth Obado’s government for seeing it fit to build a factory. We are optimistic that prices for our tubers will go up and the broker menace will be a thing of the past,” said Christine Mwita, a large-scale OFSP farmer.
