Stars in Global Health Sorghum Value-Addition Project
Our community faces significant food insecurity due to the impacts of climate change, frequent droughts, unpredictable rainfall, and declining agricultural productivity. These challenges have led to reduced crop yields, threatening the well-being of many households.
To combat this, our project on sorghum value addition—running from January 2024 to June 2025 and funded by Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT)—aims to improve household food security, nutrition, and socioeconomic empowerment in Gem and Rarieda sub-counties. in Siaya County, Kenya.
We are supporting smallholder farmers with essential inputs and training, empowering them to produce and commercialize fortified sorghum flour and porridges that are both nutritious and affordable. Our capacity building efforts target smallholder farmers, women groups, men, youths, people living with disabilities, and the broader community.
We reach over 2,000 community members through social media, workshops, local radio talk shows, sorghum field days, and marketing. Our intervention is enhancing our community's resilience, and food security against the challenges posed by climate change.
Our key project activities are hands-on training, sorghum field days, and socially inclusive and gender mainstreaming in the sorghum value chain marketing. These sorghum field days are raising awareness about the nutritional and climate health benefits of sorghum production and the use of indigenous nutrient-dense tropical plants and orphaned African leafy-vegetables in sorghum value addition
.The aim is to empower women and ensure optimal nutrition for children in the first 1000 days by improving their access to fortified sorghum with locally available nutrient-dense foods and fruits. These include orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, amaranth grains and leaves, pumpkins, butternuts, mangoes, bananas, and guavas.
The Process
01
Farmer mobilization and Recruitment and training.
02.
Farm input facilitation and cultivation.
03.
Farm management and value addition training.
04.
Harvesting and post harvest management training.
05.
Sorghum fortification and commercialization.