Hopes of sweet potato farmers in Migori transforming their livelihoods remain unfulfilled more than six years after the establishment of the Sh110 million Getonganya processing plant.

Despite heavy investment by the county government, the facility continues to lie idle, raising questions about planning, accountability, and the impact of devolved projects on local communities.

This, however, remains a pipe dream as the Sh110 million Getonganya sweet potato processing plant continues to lie idle despite the huge investments by the devolved unit.

Farmers who had hopes of increasing their earnings after the launch of the plant two years ago are now stuck with their produce, with many opting to sell to middlemen who exploit them heavily.

Josephat Kiriga, a farmer, decried the lack of a market for their sweet potatoes, claiming that they have been forced to sell at cheaper prices.

“We just rely on brokers who buy our sweet potatoes at lower prices despite the existence of a multimillion processing plant,” Kiriga stated.

The farmers want the factory made active and take sweet potatoes to reduce the losses they incur by selling to middlemen.

“We don’t know what is going on regarding the sweet potato factory,” Christopher Musimo, a resident of Tongere village, said.

Last year, an attempt by the county government to breathe life into the investment by injecting Sh20 million failed to materialize.

Low capacity, intermittent power supply, and lack of proper marketing have been linked to factors that derailed the plant’s operation.

Operations at the plant had to be halted despite the county government pumping over Sh20 million last year to ensure the plant was up and running.

Migori Deputy Governor Gimunta Mahiri said that they encountered challenges that needed to be solved for the smooth running of the plant.

“When we started, farmers supplied the plant with enough sweet potatoes,” Dr. Gimunta said.

He highlighted that the plant needed a stable supply of electricity.

According to Mahiri, the plant was built to produce sweet potato flour, but the flour was not easily marketable.

“People need to be sensitized in that they need to be told that sweet potato flour can be used just as wheat flour and maize flour,” Mahiri said.