Traditional crops puff hopes for climate resilience in Kenya

(Reuters News, 8 Jan 2020) Can growing more climate-hardly crops - and finding ways to process them into popular products - help communities weather global warming?

Two years ago, Michael Gichangi launched a business he hopes will help his rural community better cope with climate change stresses: making puffed cereal from climate-hardy traditional grains.

Using a $1,000 machine he bought, he pops millet - a drought-tolerant grain, but one not as widely eaten as staple maize - and turns it into a popular snack.

Over the last two years he has sold about $1,500 worth of the popped grain, and is the first in the district to have one of the machines, he said.

"I started popping millet to produce very delicious snacks, by mixing it with groundnuts, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon powder and simsim (sesame) oil", he said.

The combination has won particular approval from students looking for an after-school snack, he said, and is now sold at the local Embu market.

As many households in sub-Saharan Afria struggle with poverty and food insecurity, climate change is hitting harvests and making life even harder.

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Reuters News, 8 Jan 2020: Traditional crops puff hopes for climate resilience in Kenya