Innovations that won varsity best stand

Samuel Angira shows how Aflatoxin measuring instrument is used. (Collins Kweyu, Standard)

JKUAT’s stand was a hive of activity at the show where innovators showcased their talent, while attendees sought farming tips from top innovators at the showground.

Dickens Ojijo, Dr Harold Omondi and Nicholas Onyango who came up with an app that taps internet from the moon were some of the innovators that made the university shine above the rest.

Innovators interacted with President Uhuru Kenyatta who highlighted the need to ensure sustainability of the agricultural sector by encouraging technology and innovation. Here are some innovations from the annual show.

1. Natural dewormer for livestock

A PhD student specialising in organic chemistry has developed a livestock dewormer from plants to tackle resistance to conventional dewormers.

Jackson Mutembei, who has been collecting medicinal plants for the project, says misuse of conventional dewormers also leads to chemical residue in livestock products such as milk and meat, underscoring the need to use organic dewormers instead. “With the increasing resistance to conventional livestock dewormers, farmers continue to suffer losses when the worms attack their livestock and leave them emaciated,” says Mutembei.

He adds: “Again, use of conventional dewormers leaves chemical residues in livestock products such as milk and meat which in turn causes resistance to drugs in humans and in livestock. Dewormers from plants don’t pose any of these dangers.”

According to the JKuat student, farmers in Baringo, Embu and Mbeere who can’t afford conventional dewormers are using Mathenge and Mwaritha to deworm their livestock. The two plants are considered to have strong medicinal properties.

The farmers, however, are not knowledgeable about the right quantity to give livestock to ensure they administer correct amounts of the active ingredient in the concoctions.

The project, Mutembei says, helps to determine the actual content of the active deworming ingredient.

2. Biogas from agricultural waste

Setting up a biogas plant has never been easy. Fixed systems especially require skilled manpower and a lot of investments, including land where the system is installed to convert organic waste into energy. It is usually undertaken as a large scale venture.

But with JKuat’s REHAU Homegas, an innovation incubated at the university’s industrial park, it is easy to install a biogas system at your balcony. It is a simple mobile system that innovators say can help with outside catering.

It includes a digester where cow dung, domestic waste and any other organic waste is mixed with water and allowed a two-week retention period to produce gas. The gas is released in a gas storage bag which can be plucked from the system and carried around independently.

“The gas storage bag can be disconnected from the system and carried to remote places. It is good for outside catering,” says Emmanuel Mvoni, a staff at JKuat Industrial park who is working on the project.

 The bio-slurry, a byproduct of the process that is ejected from the bio-digester is applied on crops as organic fertiliser. The JKuat team is charging Sh58,000 to install the system in homesteads.

3. The snail project

Not much is known about snail consumption in Kenya apart from snail dishes in select high-end restaurants.

But with the ongoing value addition project on edible snails at JKuat, it will now be possible to get snail meat, snail eggs, snail cream and bio-snail organic fertilisers.

Dubbed Bio-snails organic products, the project is led by Dr Paul Kinoti, a lecturer at the JKuat horticulture department.

“At the moment, we only hear of snail dishes in Chinese restaurants. The project aims to create awareness on other uses of snails that go beyond the snail meat. We also hope that Kenyans will embrace consumption of snails as an alternative source of food,” said Dr Kinoti.

Nutrition wise, snails stand out as low-calorie sources of proteins. They are also adequate sources of energy and contain omega -3 and fatty acids as well as important vitamins and minerals.

Snail eggs, laid only twice a year, are also edible and cost up to Sh180,000 for every 50-grams jar. The eggs are touted for their antioxidant properties.

Bio-snail shells, on the other hand, are used to treat waste water and are crushed to provide the calcium component in the manufacture of organic fertilsers.

And snail mucus is centrifuged to make bio-snail cream used to treat burns, remove acne and black spots. The cream also has anti-ageing properties.

For farmers, snails have been touted as an economical venture as they take up a smaller space compared to livestock and even poultry. Only one snail species, the African giant, is edible. It takes two weeks to hatch from the egg and measures about 2cm at maturity.

Ivy Rose, a fourth year Horticulture student at JKuat is optimistic that people will embrace the culture.

“What stands in the way is the attitude of Kenyans who detest snails. But we hope that with time, the snails will be appreciated just the way people have appreciated crickets and are eating cricket biscuits, crickets cakes and even bread made from the insects,” said Rose.

4. Bio-degradable bags made from rice husks

A JKuat PhD student has found an innovative way to deal with the rice husks menace in Mwea and other rice producing schemes.

Edwin Madivoli, an organic chemistry researcher at the university, says rice farmers have for years battled the challenge of disposing the rice husks which take a long time to decompose. Farmers resort to burning the product, thereby causing a bigger ecological problem and the nuisance of dealing with too much ash.

His research is aimed at utilising agricultural waste to produce value added products.

“In farming, agricultural residues are usually disposed of in ways that lead to environmental degradation. My research is aimed at creating products from agricultural waste to solve a problem in an environmentally friendly way,” says Madivoli.

At the JKuat expo, the researcher showcased biodegradable cellulose films he had made from rice husks. The films, he explained, may be used in the place of plastic carrier bags.

“Unlike the available plastic bags which take hundreds of years without decomposing, our bio-degradable cellulose films break down naturally within a year, machining them the best alternative to plastics,” says Madivoli.

Additionally, the films are used coated with medicinal extracts from plants and used to dress wounds.

5. Poweryako system

Mwaniki Ngatia, a control and instrumentation graduate at JKuat has designed an energy management system to enable individuals and companies manage electricity consumption at homes and at their workplaces.

The tool, Poweryako system, is designed to provide real time analytics of power consumption, including the amount consumed by each particular machine.

Ngatia says households and organizations will be able to audit electricity consumption on their own.

“At the moment, people receive electricity bills and pay for power they are not sure they used,” says Ngatia.

He says Poweryako breaks electricity consumption into what went into lighting, ironing, charging systems, heating water in the showers as well as that consumed by heavy duty sockets and light duty ones.

The innovation, he says responds to responsible usage enclosed in the sustainable development goals.

It is a systems of a hardware including a sub meter, a web interface where data is displayed as real time analytics indicating power used and how it is broken down and a mobile app that helps individuals to monitor power consumption.

“The Poweryako mobile app helps people chat with their power via their mobile phones, computers and tablets. You can power it on and off remotely. You can see the machine consuming a lot of power and regulate it,” says Ngatia.