Trainees and staff at Dr. Daniel Wako Murende Technical and Vocational College in Busia County, have embarked on an ambitious project of making wine from jackfruits, which are commonly grown in most parts of western Kenya.
Speaking to Education News in his office a couple of days ago, the institution’s Principal, Francis Miheso, revealed that they settled on extracting wine from jackfruits after the Government of Kenya, in collaboration with the development partners, installed fluids processing equipment in the twin workshops and four laboratories at the institution.
“We have been identified as a Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Value Addition in Food Science and Processing Technology. We are therefore offering high -level training opportunities to our trainees to enable them acquire skills in technical, entrepreneurial and business areas in the exciting context of real life industry experiences,” explained the college head.
He added that apart from producing jackfruit wine, the institution is also processing purple tea wine and other fruit juices, due to the availability of modern machines that can process all types of fruits.
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“Production of purple tea wine won us an award during this year’s Kenya Association of Technical Training Institutions (KATTI), Western Regional TVET Fair and Robotics Contest that took place from September 25th to 26th at the Sigalagala National Polytechnic in Kakamega County,” said the Principal.
Miheso further revealed that the County Government of Busia displayed jackfruit wine from the institution in its stand, which attracted a lot of participants during the Devolution Conference that took place at Homa Bay High School in August this year.
He further noted that the production of jackfruit wine has made the County Government of Busia to ferry farmers from various co-operative societies to the institution to see for themselves how value addition is done to fruits, milk and meat.
Since its establishment a couple of years ago, the institution has continued posting impressive results in national examinations. The most recent pass rate stands at 78 per cent.
By Tindi Kuchio
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