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Cassava farming

Farmers in western Kenya and major cassava growing areas were struggling to produce enough food for their families and communities because of poor land, low-yielding varieties and a crop disease that decimated their staple food crop, cassava.

Fast-maturing cassava

Thanks to support from the NFU, we helped farmers in the Ugenya and Nyando districts in Nyanza to increase their harvests of healthy cassava by:

  • introducing new disease-resistant varieties that produce more yield per hectare, mature faster and cope better with drought than the traditional variety
  • training leading farmers in the area how to look after the new variety, so that they could share their knowledge more widely
  • increasing cassava consumption and boosting nutrition by teaching farmers new cooking methods, including chips, chapattis, cakes and crisps, allowing them to fetch a higher price than unprocessed cassava alone 
  • training farmers in post-harvest conservation methods such as chipping and drying, to help reduce losses and make sure food is available for longer

Who did we help?

We helped farming families in Ugenya and Nyando access new cassava varieties.

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