By Ramadhan Kambi
The construction of the Cassava milling plant in Tezo, Kilifi County is expected to be completed early next year, chief officer in charge of agriculture Fredrick Kaingu has said.
Once completed, the plant is going to play a key role in cassava value chain and open up a new market for cassava farmers in the county.
Already thousands of cassava farmers in the county are upbeat after the devolved government announced the move recently.
“We have a big number of farmers producing cassava in the county. Almost in every farm household, there is a cassava production and thus hence calls for commercialization of the crop. At the moment, the crop is being used as raw and sold in local markets in Malindi and Kilifi,” said Mr Kaingu.
He said the facility will be used for the processing of cassava chips among other value chain.
“We are aiming to have cassava chips that will be produced and secondly we are shall also be able to tap even the starch product that can be able to be extracted from cassava which is a high valued product required in the market. We are accelerating the efforts to make sure that the plant becomes operational early next year,” he said.
The plant will be fitted with, modern machines that will be able to chips the cassava to small chips.
“These chips are the ones we call the value added products. Many a times is when we go to the market and see people selling them but the way they handle make the populace not to be able to buy. But in this plant, we shall be producing the best and in big numbers to supermarkets,” said Mr Kaingu.
When he addressed the assembly recently, Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi said the county is among the top three cassava producing counties in Kenya after Kakamega and Bungoma counties and that the crop has been instrumental in averting food insecurity in the county.
“Last season, the county had a cassava surplus of 195 metric tonnes but lack of an organised market structure for the product caused unprecedented losses to farmers. The county has invested in construction of a Cassava Processing Plant in Tezo ward whose construction and completion has entered Phase two,” said Governor Kingi.
