Kenyan Recycling Firm Mixes Kitchen Waste to Boost Urban Farming

Kenyan youth work on a tree seedling farm in Kimandi, Kenya | Photo: Reuters
Kenyan youth work on a tree seedling farm in Kimandi, Kenya | Photo: Reuters
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Kenyan Recycling Firm Mixes Kitchen Waste to Boost Urban Farming

Kenyan youth work on a tree seedling farm in Kimandi, Kenya | Photo: Reuters
Kenyan youth work on a tree seedling farm in Kimandi, Kenya | Photo: Reuters

Kenyan urban farmer Francis Wachira credits a soil recycling company with keeping him afloat financially during the coronavirus crisis: it helped him to start producing herbs and vegetables on his tiny Nairobi plot.

The locally-owned company, Sprout Organic, mixes animal bone meal, seeds, foliage, dry leaves, twigs, and kitchen waste like banana peels, to concoct a composite that is then sold to urban farmers like Wachira to grow food in small spaces.

Wachira, 71, used to make a living by renting out tiny tin shacks he built, but the coronavirus pandemic meant his tenants could no longer pay him.

Now he sells the produce from his plot, such as kale, spinach, and herbs, and says he earns around 1,000 shillings ($9.23).

"We are making good money out of this," he said.

Ted Gachanga, an agronomist who co-owns Sprout, says their product resembles black cotton soil. Worms are usually added to the mixture to help it mature, a process that takes about four weeks.

A 20 kg bag sells at 3,500 shillings. Gachanga said demand had risen by 10% during the pandemic, which has cut incomes and impinged food supply chains.

"People are seeing the need to grow their own produce," Gachanga said.

Close to 15,000 people in Kenya have been infected by the COVID-19 disease since the first case was reported in mid-March, official data showed. Economic growth has slowed down sharply, with many job losses in sectors like tourism.

Sprout employs three staff, and its owners say that although their technology is not new, they have patented the formula for the composite. They hope to expand production beyond Nairobi to cover other towns.

"Anybody can be an urban farmer," said Michael Kanywiria, a co-owner of Sprout. ($1 = 108.3000 Kenyan shillings)



Source: Trump to Make English Official US Language

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House, February 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House, February 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Source: Trump to Make English Official US Language

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House, February 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House, February 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to make English the official US language, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
The source did not provide a timing for the signing of the order, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The United States has never had an official language at the federal level but the issue has been problematic for certain states, Reuters reported.
The use of Spanish in public life has sparked controversy over the years, including in Texas, where a state senator in 2011 demanded that an immigrant rights activist speak English not his native Spanish at a legislative hearing.
That rekindled a decades-old debate over whether it is proper to speak Spanish in Texas, which was once a part of Mexico and, before that, a part of the Spanish Empire.
The issue has been painful for many older Mexican-American Texans who recall being punished for speaking Spanish in school in the 1950s.