AMARANTH NUTRITIVE MAGIC
Location
The idea is about using Amaranth weed to provide nutrition for the rural population in Kenya and those living with HIV and AIDS virus. The weed grows widely during the rainy seasons and it usually sprouts up healthily around cow sheds which is a common site in Kenya's rural areas
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
SAMWEL BIWOTT
Last Name
BIKENS
Website
Organization
MOI UNIVERSITY
Country
Kenya
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
MOI UNIVERSITY
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+254 020 2141251
Organization Address
P.O BOX 1125, ELDORET
Is your organization a
Government
Organization Country
Kenya
Your idea
Name Your Project
AMARANTH NUTRITIVE MAGIC
Country your work focuses on
Kenya
Describe Your Idea
The idea is about using Amaranth weed to provide nutrition for the rural population in Kenya and those living with HIV and AIDS virus. The weed grows widely during the rainy seasons and it usually sprouts up healthily around cow sheds which is a common site in Kenya's rural areas
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
My idea is unique because it takes advantage of a weed to provide nutrition to the poor population who cannot afford refined food supplements that are sold in markets.Since the weed grows abundantly and naturally during wet seasons, then it means this source of proteins,vitamins and essential minerals provision will be sustainable in the long run as it can be preserved for use during periods of drought.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
I have encouraged the population of my rural area to utilize the weed for its high protein,vitamins and essential minerals value and showed them on how the weed can be used to produce nutritive flour that they can mix with their staple maize meal to add value to their food at absolutely no extra cost since the weed grows naturally.They can also use the leaves as a vegetable by cooking it or better still drying it for long period preservation to be used during dry seasons when the weed and other vegetables are rare.
Problem
The project faced huddles during the recent post elections violence when the population was displaced by the violence and they missed one wet season to harvest the weed.Besides this, the terrain of the area is rough requiring mechanized means to move from place to place.
Actions
My project is currently addressing the need to provide vitamin and essential minerals supplements to HIV infected persons in the rural areas of Nakuru District of Kenya. The Amaranth weed has proved to provide high value vitamins and essential minerals to this hurting group of the population who cannot afford to purchase processed and refined food supplements from the shops.
Moi university has provided funding and vehicles to ferry project extension personnel to the rural areas of Nakuru where the project is situated.
The institution is also partnering with a Indiana university sponsored HIV and AIDs management programme christened AMPATH to spread the use of the idea to help in health management of HIV and AIDs patients.
Results
Through the project, many people will be able to access affordable vitamins supplement and therefore improve generally the health of the entire population.The results can then be replicated to other parts of the country to enhance good health of the population.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Year 1 - Information dissemination on the idea and planning of the programme
Year 2 - Weed harvesting and tests on large scale production of the weed
Year 3 - Project expansion and production.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Any political instability that will render the population insecure to live and invest in the technology.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
In what country?
Kenya
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
MOI UNIVERSITY
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Most of the organizations in the partnership seek to provide support to the population and therefore in one way or another will help in disseminating information about my innovation therefore improving its adaptation by people.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
For my initiative to grow, there should be sufficient funding to enable the initiative to be broadcasted widely to the population by way of advocacy. There should be support from the government in encouraging the use of the initiative as a source of proteins,vitamins and essential mineral supplement. The third is that there is need to have a mechanism whereby excess production can be harnessed to ensure sustainability of the project in the long run.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
I come from a rural area where the population is very poor and ravaged by HIV and AIDS due to its proximity to the Great North Road which is an highway that runs across the African continent from South Africa to Egypt where long distant trailers and trucks drivers use as a stop-over for their overnight stay before proceeding with their journeys since there are numerous lodging facilities and good security for their trucks and loads.
Due to the suffering of the people and considering the aridness of the area i thought there should be a cheaper way of providing nutritive food to these hurting people and therefore the birth of the idea.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
I have close relatives infected and affected by the HIV and AIDS disease and i feel i am indebted to assist this poor and hurting community to live with hope and have the courage to face the future.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
Nation Media Group through their Daily Nation newspaper
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Comments
Samwel,
This is a very interesting concept and, having read a little about the uses of amaranth, it seems like it could be very beneficial. Can you say a little more about how this project would be enacted? It seems to focus on spreading information about the plant. What about cultivation, harvesting, and processing? Is this a simple process? How easy is it to integrate into other flours in the cooking process?
I look forward to learning more.
Hanan
Hi Hanan,
Thanks for your interest in my concept,it is really fulfilling and encouraging.
Amaranth as a weed is very beneficial as a source of Vitamins, Esssencial minerals as well as proteins and fibre content.It is reported that Amaranthus species have a 30% protein value than cereals such as rice, wheat flour, oats and rye.Amaranth seed, like buckwheat and quinoa contain protein that is usually complete for plant sources.
Most fruits and vegetables do not have a complete set of amino acids and thus different sources of protein must be used.Its seeds have a protein content that is greater than that of wheat, and in addition, its protein is not of the problematic type known as gluten.Amaranth seeds may also be of benefit to those with hypertension and cardiovascular disease.Its regular consumption reduces blood pressure and cholestral level, while improving antioxidant status and some immune parameters.
My project will be enacted by introducing the cultivation aspect of the weed by identifying the species that best suits the local environment, and encouraging peasant farmers to consider putting their lands into amaranth cultivation.By discarding the traditional way of relying on amaranth that grows in cow sheds during the rainy season for its conventional cultivation, farmers will be in a position to produce more of it for their consumption and sale now that the weed has found its way to market shelves with its products fetching more than what common vegetables fetches.
Cultivating this weed will be very easy as it requires manure and therefore most farmers will find it easy to grow it since farm manure is usually in plenty in their rural setup farms.Harvesting it is also simple because like millet and sorgum, the dry seed heads are plucked and then beaten to release the seeds. The leaves are harvested in the conventional way just as the other vegetables and can be used directly by cooking or they can also be dried for use during dry seasons when vegetables are hard to come by and hence very expensive. The seeds can then be milled to produce a fine flour that can be mixed with other grains for cooking porridge and other fine whole meals.
With proper information to farmers on the amaranth weed, the weed can be harnesssed to help in fighting malnutrition and at the same time reducing poverty.
Great work! I was particularly interested in your response to Hanan Nassau. You provided a lot of detail on the nutritional value of Amaranth. I could not figure out whether the evaluation of the nutritional quality and the acceptability of its taste were based upon an analysis of cultivated Amaranth grain, as opposed to the weed.
In addition, I was interested in whether you plan on simply harvesting the weed as it occurs naturally, or whether you are hoping to encourage cultivation of Amaranth. It would seem that the sustainability of nutritional supplementation using Amaranth would be dependent upon yields. In the target region, do we know whether the amount of Amaranth in a given area is sufficient to support the effort involved in its harvest and processing?
Good luck, and I am eager to hear your response.
Thanks Rubina! I register my appreciation for your interests in my concept.
The project has been running for the past few years, and we had a chance of comparing amaranth nutritive value under various growth conditions during the rainy season i.e as a weed and also under caltivated land, this was done in one of our demonstration plots. The results showed that under cultivation, the weed can even do better by yielding high nutrition value than as a weed. This was because the amaranth weed's vegetativeness was encouraged more under less competition from other weed or grass variaties, therefore the cultivated weed was able to use the nutrients available to maximise its growth for better production of seeds and edible leaves.
Since cultivation of amaranth proved to yield better results as compared to amaranth weed, and considering the fact that the prices of its products have been going up by day, the project intends to encourage cultivation of amaranth by rural masses to inprove their incomes level. By the research, it was found out that cultivated weed is in a position to produce around 400kgs of seed per acre at Ksh.186 or USD. 2.48 per kg translating to Ksh.74,400 or USD. 993 per acre, which is alot of money for a country where more than half the population of 30 million people i.e 15 million lives in under a dollar a day. It should also be noted that the growth cycle of amaranth weed takes less than 5 months therefore its cultivation can be an exellent means of poverty reduction. This means that the weed can also be turned into a cash "weed" and at the same time help in providing a balanced nutrition to the low income/poor rural people.
It goes without mention also that as compared to other conventional cereals cultivation like corn and wheat which are capital intensive, amaranth cultivation will only require seeds and organic fertilizer to grow therefore with proper information to the masses, the weed can turn to be one of the most profitable venture in the agricutural sector since the weed's seeds and manure for planting can be readily available in the villages/rural areas.
Once again thanks for your interest and best regards
Samwel
Dear Samwel,
Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful responses to my and Rubina Khan's inquiries. It certainly is interesting and helpful to know more about your project. Of course, though, your responses raised additional questions.
Can you tell me more about the innovative nature of this project? You make it sound so simple. Is that the case? Is Amaranth grown in other neighboring countries around Kenya as a cash crop as you propose to do? With such returns for the product, does your plan have a contingency that will keep the crop yield from surging, which would cause the price to drop? Lastly, is your organization a nation-wide one? How might it communicate the benefits of Amaranth around Kenya and take the project to such a scale?
Thank you,
Hanan
Dear Hanan,
Thanks for your comments.
My project is innovative because, it takes advantage of a naturally growing weed to provide nutrition to the rural poor and sick who are hurting and not in a position to purchase refined food supplements from stores. The fact that the people living in the villages have never identified the potential of this weed which they usually slash off in cow shades to give space for animals and the project wants to address this wastage and converting it to a source of nutrition, by itself is innovative.
In the first instance, my project proposes to create awareness about the nutritive value of the weed at no extra cost to the rural masses since it is in abundance during rainy seasons. This therefore makes my project very simple to initiate as it involves only initial advocacy.
Once this has been achieved, and people have appreciated its useful nature, then they can also be made to know that the weed can also be formally grown and tended to produce surplus output that can generate income for them. The tests that we performed in our demonstration plot showed that the output can be increased tremendously when the weed is tended as compared to when it is harvested under cow sheds since the vegetative nature of the weed is promoted under well tended grounds.
The planting of Amaranth weed for commercial purposes is a new phenomenon in East Africa and it is catching up fast, this is only restricted to some few farms and they send their yields directly to store shelves, therefore making it available only to the rich who can afford them.
My project does not necessary focus on the issue of monitory gain by people in rural areas, but access to cheap and available nutrition through the weed and therefore the financial aspect is only a second thought to the project when sustainability is considered.The fact that many people in the rural areas of Nakuru District which is my project focus at the moment are infected with the dreaded HIV and Aids virus and therefore in need of very nutritious food made the inception of the idea possible.
My organization i.e Moi University is a national/countrywide learning and research institution with extension and outreach programmes as well as international linkages thus making it possible to create advocacy platforms for the project.