Kenya’s Lake Basin Development Authority to rehabilitate ageing rice mill in Kisumu

KENYA – The Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) plans to put up new rice milling machines in Kibos, Kisumu East, to revamp an ageing mill in a bid to upscale milling efficiency in the region.

Peninah Malonza, the Cabinet Secretary for East Africa Community and Regional Development revealed this while visiting the site where the assembling of the new machine is taking place.

According to her, the new milling machine will revolutionize rice farming in the region with a move aimed at growing wealth creation amongst farmers.

She revealed that the new machine has the capacity to mill 4 tonnes of rice per hour and comes with new features that will enhance its efficiency.

“This machine once fitted will relieve farmers of long queues and prevent them from selling unpolished rice outside the country,” the CS said.

She said farmers have also suffered in the hands of middlemen assuring them that the new machine will give them hope of planting more rice.

“The old machine had a mill capacity of 3.5 tonnes of rice per hour when it [was] installed but this has deteriorated up to under 1 tonne per hour,”

According to her, the new mill will greatly assist farmers from the schemes of Ahero and Nyando irrigation areas thus spurring economic growth.

“The new mill with the milling rate of 4 tons per hour, milling three shifts in a day,5 days in a week (excluding weekends) for 12 months will mill 28,000 metric tons that would generate revenue,” the CS said.

Malonza said the machine will be ready for commissioning by President William Ruto in a month.

The move comes after recently, the Kenya Agricultural Research Organization (Kalro) introduced climate-resistant, early maturing rice variety for Kenya’s Lake Basin region to enable farmers to get better yields while addressing food security in Kenya.

Mr Finyange Pole, director at Kalro’s Industrial Crop Research Institute and LBDA managing director Wycliffe Ochiaga launched the new rice varieties and urged farmers to adopt them.

These varieties are expected to mature within 90 days as opposed to the variety that Homa Bay farmers had been planting takes more than 120 days to mature.

Dubbed 08FAN10 (mkombozi) and CSR 36, the new varieties were introduced in farms under the Kimira Oluch Smallholder Farmer Improvement Project in Homa Bay County.

The Kimira Oluch Smallholder Farm Improvement Project in Homa Bay is an irrigation project that supplies water to more than 1,500 hectares (3,706 acres).

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