Kenyan University Students Turn Grass into Cheap Ugali Flour to Fight Hunger

A group of Kabarak University students has found a way of converting grass into edible starch flour that can be used to make ugali or porridge.

Faith Wandia, who came up with the idea two years ago, said she was inspired by the increase in maize flour prices in the country and believes the innovation will help Kenya and the entire world to fight hunger. 

“When I started this project, I had goals that I wanted to achieve. I am excited because I know this product will save lives,” she said, adding that the grass flour will retail at Sh35 a kilo.

With the help of Bahati Innocent, a Clinical Medicine student, Salome Njeri (Economics), and Edgar Ruto (Computer Science), Wandia embarked on research aimed at converting cellulose contained in grass into starch that is good for human consumption.

“Last year, maize flour used to retail between Sh40 to Sh55 per kilogram, and it shot up this year to Sh90 up to Sh120 per kg. As innovators, we decided to come up with a project that would make food affordable and save people from dying of hunger,” the 24-year-old Business Administration master’s student said.

She told Nation that they settled on drought-resistant Bermuda grass and Ryegrass, which take only two months to grow. Once the grass is harvested, it is washed to remove contamination, dried, and ground into powder (cellulose powder) before adding enzymes to break down the cellulose into starch.

 “Grass is in the same family as maize therefore the starch is identical. At first, we were doing trial and error to see what would work. Sometimes, we ended up having glucose instead of starch and we had to start again. The cost of purchasing the enzymes and shipping was high,” Wandia said.

Bahati said they are waiting for a certificate from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) to clear the product as fit for human consumption before they begin large-scale production.

“When Wandia told me about the project I didn’t think it was something viable. I laughed it off but I later sat down and reassessed it. We approached our lecturers and through their guidance, we have solved the puzzle.” 

“Our product is not genetically modified organisms but simply a chemical that has been transformed from one form to another. Just like when you eat beans, the body converts them into amino acids. These amino acids are not GMOs, they are just transformed from one chemical form to another,” he added.