Cassava Post-Harvest Management in Kenya: Opportunity for Gari Production: A Review

2026-02-03T15:10:26+00:00

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a vital climate resilience crop in Sub-Saharan Africa, ranking as the fourth most crucial staple globally. In Kenya, it is a second root crop after Irish potatoes and provides a significant source of food and income, particularly for smallholder farmers who comprise about 80% of agricultural producers. However, its potential contribution to national food and nutrition security remains underexploited due to severe post-harvest losses, low nutritional value, and the presence of toxic cyanogenic glycosides. This review synthesises peer-reviewed literature, policy documents, and technical reports published between 2015 and 2025 to examine cassava postharvest handling and value addition options in Kenya. Evidence shows that poor infrastructures accelerate PPD 72 hours after harvest, resulting in significant losses up to 23%. Although processing into gari has proven effective in reducing cyanide through fermentation and roasting while extending shelf life, its adoption in Kenya remains limited. Key barriers include a lack of awareness of the product, inadequate small-scale processing infrastructure, a lack of standardised gari quality specifications, weak market awareness, and consumer preference for fresh cassava roots. The review identifies critical research gaps, notably the limited Kenyan studies on gari scalability, consumer acceptance, and market integration. While policy initiatives such as Kenya’s Agricultural Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS 2019–2029) emphasize value addition to reduce postharvest losses, implementation remains limited. The review concludes that targeted investment in small-scale processing technologies, development of Kenyan gari quality standards, and market-oriented research are essential to enhance cassava value addition through product diversification and strengthen food and nutrition security in Kenya.

A Review of Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) Contamination in Food Crops in Kenya

2026-05-31T14:30:10+00:00

In Kenya, rapid urbanization, poorly managed industrialization, and the intensive use of agrochemicals have heightened the risk of toxic element accumulation in the food supply chain. Among these contaminants, Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) pose severe risks due to their non-biodegradable nature, long biological half-lives, and high toxicity even at low concentrations. This study aimed to systematically synthesize a decade of empirical evidence (2016–2026) regarding lead () and cadmium () contamination in food crops in Kenya, map their geographic and anthropogenic pathways, characterize the associated multi-systemic human health risks, and identify structural regulatory gaps. Following a predefined systematic protocol, a narrative review was executed across major electronic databases (including PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and AJOL). A total of 33 datasets for and 14 for evaluating concentrations in edible plant tissues, agricultural soils, and irrigation networks within Kenya were extracted and cataloged. Empirical data were stratified across urban, riverine, mining, commercial, and post-harvest retail zones, and benchmarked against international health thresholds established by the FAO, WHO, and Codex Alimentarius. The evidence revealed a stark, structurally entrenched contamination gradient following an urban-industrial > peri-urban riverine > rural high-input > rural low-input pattern. Leafy vegetables (kale, spinach, and indigenous greens) hyperaccumulated both metals. In the Nairobi-Machakos-Kiambu corridor, mean concentrations in urban kale reached ppm, driven by vehicular emissions, road dust, and untreated wastewater irrigation. Riverine systems like the Athi and Kabuthi river basins recorded extreme dry-season concentrations up to mg/kg due to industrial effluent. The most catastrophic localized exposure occurred in Migori County’s artisanal gold mining zones, where vegetable levels climbed to mg/kg (nearly 240 times the Codex limit) and soil reached mg/kg. Conversely, commercial farmlands in Trans Nzoia and Western Kenya exhibited systemic soil enrichment exceeding WHO agricultural limits tenfold driven by the continuous application of phosphate-based fertilizers. Toxicological benchmarking indicated severe, multi-systemic, and intergenerational risks. Approximately 69% of children consuming Nairobi's urban-grown greens exceed daily reference doses, predisposing them to irreversible neurodevelopmental injury, cognitive deficits, and downward social mobility. In adults, dietary directly amplifies cardiovascular disease and mortality risks. Due to its 25-to-30-year biological half-life, cumulative dietary exposure presents a silent epidemic of progressive renal tubular dysfunction, chronic kidney disease, bone demineralization, and multi-organ carcinogenicity via mutagenic and heritable epigenetic pathways. Kenya's food safety governance framework is currently inadequate, it lacks enforceable domestic maximum residue limits (MRLs), a national food contaminant surveillance program and sufficient laboratory infrastructure requiring urgent, coordinated, and evidence-based legislative and environmental interventions to safeguard Kenyan public health and food security

Journal of Crops, Livestock and Pest Management

Cassava Post-Harvest Management in Kenya: Opportunity for Gari Production: A Review

A Review of Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) Contamination in Food Crops in Kenya