Nyandarua (Kenya) to introduce potato varieties suitable for processing

The Nyandarua government is partnering with the National Potato Council and German organisation GTZ to produce new varieties of potatoes.

Addressing a press conference in his office on Thursday, Governor Daniel Waithaka said the potatoes will be processed in factories to produce value added products.

He said the current varieties of potatoes cannot be processed in a factory due to their nature.

"The first step will be to initiate production of clean seed of the appropriate variety and then supply them sufficiently to all potato farmers in the county, then scale up production to sustain a processing plant' demand," Waithaka said.

The governor said Kenya imports a large quantity of potatoes from Egypt and his county is committed to boosting production to reduce the import costs for the national government.