Boon for Kirinyaga cotton farmers as researchers invent processor

But that may soon change as farmers could have multiple options.

They may decide to sell their cotton raw as they have always done, add value by separating the seeds from lint and sell the two separately or decide to process it and sell the final products.

Growers will be in a position to produce threads and garments and proceed to extract oil from seeds for domestic use while the cotton seed cake will be fed to animals.

This is after a team of researchers from Kirinyaga University developed a portable cotton micro-gin that can separate cotton seeds from lint right at the farm level.

The university’s interest is not only in the ginning stage but also the entire cotton value chain.

Agnes Mutiso, one of the researchers and a lecturer at the university, says there are plans to facilitate training of farmers so they can add value to their cotton by producing products instead of selling it to the ginnery or textile industries.

“In this project, we have been able to identify people who can train these farmers on ginning, weaving, spinning, generate yarn and finally the cloth,” she says.

“We will also be able to support them with sewing machines where they can use the yarn to make clothes.”

The move will greatly enable farmers to bypass middle men in the cotton value chain who buy the raw produce at low prices.

The project was funded by the government through the National Research Fund and researchers were required to develop a prototype that would help farmers gin their cotton.

“After developing the prototype, we sought more funding from the government of France through the Fund for Innovation in Development and at this point we are taking the innovation to the farmer,” says Denis Muchangi, also a senior lecturer at Kirinyaga University.

The machine is at the pilot stage and has been handed over to farmers for testing. They will be required to give their feedback after using it for a week or two for further improvement if need be.

However if farmers give it a clean bill of health, then units will be mass produced for distribution to 27 other cotton growing regions.

Currently the machine is being tested in Mwea and Mbeere in Embu county with four groups in Mwea and six in Kanyua Mbora involved in the pilot stage.

“Once the pilot stage is through and successful, the funding agent has committed to upscale it to other 27 cotton growing counties in the country,” Muchangi says.

The machine will have potential to gin one ton of cotton in a day if run non-stop.

The multi-powered gin can be driven by either petrol or electricity but research is ongoing to come up with another one that can be used manually or powered by solar to further cut production costs.

Researcher David Kabata says there is a big disparity between prices of raw and ginned cotton and if farmers can add value to their cotton, then they can get more money.

A kilo of raw grade two cotton goes for Sh25 while grade one fetches Sh65.

However when ginned, farmers can earn up to Sh200 and Sh250 per kilo for grade one cotton and Sh40 per a kilo of seeds.

“So, you can see we lose about Sh200 which I think the farmer can be able to benefit from,” Kabata adds.

Grace Kiiru, another researcher, terms the discovery a solution to problems affecting farmers as it will empower them economically.

Daniel Magondu, a small sale cotton farmer in Kimuri village in Mwea, concurs that the innovation will translate into more earnings to farmers.

“It is our first time to see a mini-gin in our farms, where we can pick cotton, put it in the gin and get cotton wool and seeds separately there and then,” he says.

Magondu is hopeful that even after linting their cotton, they can still sell it to millers and press the seeds to produce oil for use at home and feed the seed cake to their cows to increase milk production.

“If we are going to have integrated centres where this value addition is going to take place, these farmers are going to benefit a lot because they will not sell raw cotton as we have done before,” he adds.

Enhanced earnings, he says, will also incentivise farmers to step up their efforts and attract more into cotton growing thus reviving the sector.