A youth group in Kisii is kissing goodbye to poverty through processing banana produce. The group, for example, buys a full banana bunch at Sh300 and processes it into crisps which fetch Sh1,680.

The group still manufactures other products from bananas. These include banana flour for making bread, cakes and biscuits. After further processing ripened banana, the group also makes wine, jam, juice, beer, yoghurt, cakes and doughnuts. The youth also make ropes, mats and caps.

With such innovation, everything is poised to

A youth group in Kisii is kissing goodbye to poverty through processing banana produce. The group, for example, buys a full banana bunch at Sh300 and processes it into crisps which fetch Sh1,680.

The group still manufactures other products from bananas. These include banana flour for making bread, cakes and biscuits. After further processing ripened banana, the group also makes wine, jam, juice, beer, yoghurt, cakes and doughnuts. The youth also make ropes, mats and caps.

With such innovation, everything is poised to change for farmers in Kisii region where Nyangorora Banana Youth Group has set up a Sh6 million banana processing factory. Year after year, local politicians had been making empty promises to build a banana processing factory to exploit the enormous potential in the region.

Low prices

Unlike other cash crop farmers across the country, banana farmers in Kisii had, hitherto, only known two sets of consumers -- their families and middle-men -- who buy the produce at low prices and mint millions by selling in Nakuru, Nairobi and Mombasa.

The venture by Nyangorora Youth Group came by luck. The youth had neither wealth nor influential friends but their dream is a godsend to many Kisii farmers.

The group’s activities are located in Miriri market, about 23 km from Kisii town. The market does not have a tarmacked road, or electricity or piped water.

The idea to start the youth group was largely borne out of boredom and a bleak future for many Form Four leavers.

“I remember staying for more than six years without anything to do except loiter around the village with my age mates. We had nothing to do,” Mr James Omiso, Nyangorora Banana Youth Group’s chairman, told this writer during the interview.

Changed fate

A visit to Rigoma divisional headquarters to register their youth group at the Ministry of Social Services offices changed the fate of the group members.

“We found a Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) farmers’ training seminar on orchard management going on at Rigoma Division Hall. One of the trainers prevailed on us to attend the course as we waited to be served on the other side,” Omiso recalls.

During the training, which only lasted 30 minutes, the group members were introduced to a new concept – banana tissue culture farming.

Tissue culture farming is the process of producing clean planting materials free from pests. A cell is taken from a plant of your choice, propagated in a special laboratory where it multiplies to produce plantlets that are transferred to a sterilised hardening nursery before being planted in the main field.

“We were more interested in banana agronomy since we come from a place where we have planted lots of bananas. What struck us most was that tissue culture bananas take only nine months to mature,” says Joan Kerubo, a member of the youth group.

The group, then comprising 14 members, spread the news across their village and managed to recruit 30 more members – all of them Form Four leavers with no other training.

Each of the group members was given 30 banana tissue culture plantlets to plant at their respective homes. Nine months later, their effort was handsomely rewarded as the bananas blossomed beyond expectation.

In April 2009, the youth group was visited by scientists and community developers from Farm Africa, Kari, Kenya Industrial Research Development Institute (Kirdi), International Service for Acquisition of Agri-biotechnology Application (Isaaa) and Kenya Gatsby Trust who were in the process of carrying out a banana project in the country.

“During our initial visits, we discovered the youth group’s products were wanting in quality. As an institute, we decided to assist in a partnership that will benefit both sides,” says William Mutwiri, Kirdi’s officer in charge of Kisii centre who is also a research/food scientist.

In the partnership, Kirdi agreed to supply machinery while Nyangorora Banana Youth Group was to supply raw materials, provide a site for the plant and cover operational and management costs.

In the first phase of the project, Kirdi has supplied machines worth Sh6 million for making banana flour, banana crisps and banana-based products. The next phase will include machinery for making banana juice and wine.

The group applied for more financial assistance from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Ministry of Agriculture. In April, this year, the group received a Sh50,000 loan from the Youth Enterprise Development Fund while the Ministry of Agriculture, through the Njaa Marufuku programme, awarded the group a Sh120,000 grant to assist in buying raw materials for the factory.

“We buy a banana bunch at an average of Sh300 which is around 40 to 50 kg. Around 80 per cent of the weight is lost during the drying process. After drying the banana, we grind it to make flour, which we pack and sell at the rate of 1 kg for Sh250,” says Omiso.

They once supplied the flour to Kenyatta National Hospital. From the banana flour alone, they make a profit of Sh500 from each bunch after meeting all expenses.

They sell 200 ml of banana juice at Sh15 while 20 gm of banana crisps goes for Sh50. A full banana bought at Sh300 and sold as banana crisps fetches Sh1,680.

The tissue culture bananas are planted in rows with a spacing of 5 ft by 9 ft between rows. A young banana plant is sold at Sh100 and takes nine months to mature.

But even with Nyangorora’s big step to set up the factory, the youth group still faces several challenges. They are still seeking certification from the Kenya Bureau of Standards for their products, have no marketing strategy, and lack packaging materials.

Transporting raw materials to the plant site and finding a suitable location for the factory are among its other challenges.

They have been using polythene paper bought from retail shops, which is not a suitable packaging material for banana products.

“We have the machines but this building is too small for the machines and we are unable to fully use the plant. Most of our machines haven’t been used yet,” Omiso says pointing to the building that has been rented for the youth group by Kitutu Masaba CDF Committee