This archive report was first published on 13 January 2020.
Climate change is hitting harvests and making life harder for many households in Sub-Saharan Africa, but finding new markets for hardy grains can help, agricultural scientists say.
Michael Gichangi, an entrepreneur in Embu County, has launched a business making puffed cereal from climate-hardy traditional grains, such as millet, to help his community cope with climate change stresses.
Using a Sh100,000 machine he bought, Gichangi pops millet and turns it into a popular snack, which is now sold at the local Embu market.
He started popping millet to produce very delicious snacks, by mixing it with groundnuts, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon powder and simsim (sesame) oil, he said.
Patrick Maundu, an ethnobotanist at the National Museums of Kenya, said millet is a traditional Kenyan crop that has been neglected due to key policies focused on maize.
However, in recent years, wilder weather linked to climate change and the high cost of farm inputs has made maize farming less reliable, particularly for small-scale farmers.
As a result, many farmers have diversified back into drought-resistant traditional crops, and Gichangi's effort is one of them.
He has sold about Sh150,000 worth of the popped grain over the past two years and is the first in the district to have one of the machines.
Stella Gathaka, one of four workers at Gichangi's small factory, said that her new job allows her children to eat the millet snacks, which are more nutritious than their previous snack of sweet wheat biscuits.
According to a 2017 United Nations report, climate change pressures are a key reason about 800 million people do not have enough food.
Liz Young, a senior researcher with the International Food Policy Research Institute, noted that Africa's farmers urgently need help to adapt to the threats and grow enough to feed the continent's rising population.
