Widows’ porridge from unwanted weed keeps men trickling in

Men scrambling for porridge made out of amaranth popularly known as Ododo which is planted by SIATOK Widows and Orphans group from Kadianga, Nyakach in Kisumu County. Through value addition, the group makes money from the crop to take care of the orphans. PHOTO BY RUSHDIE OUDIA

Pushed by the desire to provide nutritious food for their children and at the same time generate income, a women’s group in Nyakach has found an ingenious way to turn a popular weed into a money minting plant.

While many farmers abhor weeds, Siatok Widows and Orphans Group from Kadiang’a in Nyakach, Kisumu County, has come up with a way of making optimum use from the otherwise unwanted plant.

The pig weed, biologically known as Amaranthus and locally known as ododo, has for a long time been a delicious vegetable for many communities across Kenya.

But it is the seeds from this plant, not its delicious leaves, that the Nyakach women are more interested in.

Fast maturing

Now, the women’s group, which was formed in 2002, plants the weed in more than one and half acres of their land in Nyakach.

The group’s chairlady, Consolata Muga, says ododo does well on soil mixed with  manure, which the group easily get from their dairy farm. Ash is also added into the soil to enrich it.

“A glass full of ododo seeds is enough for a one-acre piece of land,” says Muga.

It takes between two to three months for Amaranthus to mature. The seeds are then harvested, dried and crushed into flour which is then mixed with cassava and sorghum. This mixture is then used to make nutritious porridge.

“To make good porridge, the ododo flour is added into cassava or finger millet then fermented with warm water,” she says.

The group sells a cup of the porridge at Sh10 and in 20-litre jerricans.  A quarter kilo of ododo flour goes for Sh50 while two kilogrammes cost Sh350.

Mrs Muga, a retired teacher, says porridge from the weed’s flour is a favourite of local men.

Apart from the porridge, the women’s group uses the ododo flour to bake cakes and to cook  chapati. A cake made from the nutritious flour is sold at Sh48, mainly to students of Nyakach Girls High School and locals.

“To bake cake using flour from the weed, one needs a cup full of flour of amaranth, three cups of wheat flour and three eggs,” says Muga.

To add flavour, one cup of margarine, a cup full of sugar and a tea spoon of lemon rind or vanilla is added into the dough.

Ododo seeds can also be popped in the same way as popcorn or added into stew to spice it up.

A research on the weed reveals that 100 grammes of uncooked amaranth grain provides 371 calories and is an excellent source of protein, dietary fiber, several vitamins and many minerals.

Amaranth is particularly rich in manganese, phosphorous, magnesium, iron and vitamin B6. But cooking amaranth substantially reduces these nutrient contents, leaving only dietary minerals in moderate content.

Outside funding

Cooked amaranth is still an excellent source of vitamin A and C, calcium, manganese and folate.

Muga says working as a team with other widows has enabled them attract funding for their projects.

 

Under Njaa Marufuku Kenya project (NMK), the group received Sh120,000 which they used to buy an oven for baking.

“We were later awarded Sh350,000 in 2004 and a similar amount in 2009 by the National Aids Council (NAC) to kick start and boost our amaranth project,” says Muga.

The group also undertakes a tree planting project and green houses inder horticultural crops. In their dairy farm, they keep both cows and goats and have received a Sh2 million grant from the Lake Victoria Environmental Programme.

“With this money we have managed to buy five dairy cattle, all female and have given birth to four calves which have been distributed amongst group members just like the other five,” she says.

For this group of widows, an unwanted plant has become more than they could ever have imagined.