Agriculture Business Investment Opportunities in Makueni County

What comes into your mind when the name Makueni County is mentioned? What is your perspective of the place? Would an investor put up their resources in that county and invest?

Most people have been made to believe that Makueni County is a drought hit area with no hope for human survival.

Makueni County covers an area of 8,034.7 sq kilometres with a projected population of more than 0.9million people.

It geographically borders Kajiado County to the West, Taita Taveta County to the South, Kitui County to the East and Machakos County to the North. The county lies in the arid and semi-arid zones of the Eastern region of the country.

Major physical features in the county include the Volcanic Chyulu hills which lie along the South West border of the County in Kibwezi West constituency, Mbooni hills in Mbooni sub-county and Kilungu hills in Kaiti sub county.

This county is a haven for investors who would wish to reap great profits from their investment projects. The potential hidden in this county can only be felt by those who take up the initiative of utilizing the ready available raw material and resources within Makueni County.

Here are some of the areas that potential Investors can venture more in Makueni County:

• Mango Processing Plant

Makueni County was ranked as the top most mango producer among all Kenyan counties. This is the reason why interested investors should take advantage of this opportunity and invest their resources in this county as they are sure of great returns.

With value addition, curbed waste and stabilised prices by the Makueni Fruit Processing Plant, the value of the mango sector in Makueni is projected to increase immensely from the current KES 3Billion. pic.twitter.com/RkRshLsHxo

— Kivutha Kibwana (@governorkibwana) January 9, 2018

According to  Governor Kivutha Kibwana , over 72 Metric tonnes of raw mango all from Makueni farmers have already been delivered to the factory. The processing plant will curb 40 percent of post-harvest fruit waste that farmers used to grapple with in the past by making and preserving mango puree.

Investors can grab an opportunity in this sector and help expand it since the people of Makueni County produce a lot of mangoes that the current Plant is not enough.

• Sorghum processing

Farmers in Makueni County embraced sorghum farming and are reaping huge benefits from it. An opportunity is available for investors to take part in processing and value addition of the sorghum into finished products such as flour and molasses.

• Milk Processing Plant

Farmers in Makueni County can now smile since Governor Kivutha Kibwana milk processing plant in the county. The plant is set to process and pack 300 litres per hour and 6600 litres in a day.

With this plant in place, more investors can make use of the opportunity like transportation or supply of materials used for milk packaging.

Other plants can also be put up so as to ease work and benefit more milk farmers in the county.

• Distribution of seeds

Farmers in Makueni County are shifting to growing drought-resistant crops such as green grams, cowpeas, pigeon peas, pearl millet, and sorghum. An investor can, therefore, take part in the supplying of seeds to farmers.

• Water supply

The County is undertaking several water-related projects such as drilling of boreholes, construction of earth dams and encouraging of irrigation and water conservation techniques. An investor can supply the resources needed for the implementation of these projects.

• Energy distribution

The county is carrying out projects aimed at the distribution of energy in areas where it is inaccessible. It will promote use of other forms of energy especially solar and wind power in street lighting, homes, the lighting of markets and public institutions. This is an opportunity to provide the resources needed for the project.