Graduate's green idea turns cactus into biogas

Francis Merinyi uses chaff cutter to crash opuntia stricta to produce a porridge-like substance that is put into bio digester for fermentation. [Jacinta Mutura, Standard]

Nearly a decade after scientists introduced a method to kill Opuntia stricta, an invasive cactus that has colonised large sections of Laikipia North, pastoralists continue to lose livestock at an alarming rate.

But now Francis Merinyi believes his idea of using the cactus to produce bio gas for households could be the solution to the 50-year-old menace.