market to road · i am taking this cassava from my farm to sell in the market. when i go to the...

Road to MarketInterviews conducted in Zambia 2004, and Ghana 2005, illustrate the outcomes of three contrasting strands of research.

Road to market colour 9/2/05 3:50 pm

Markets are wherewe buy and sell.We take them

for granted: every day -in our own communities,in our countries, and allaround the world - goodsand services areexchanged.

But in sub-SaharanAfrica, millions of small-holders and cultivatorsof kitchen gardensstruggle to bring theirgoods to market. Theyfind that there aresimply too manyobstacles along the way.Some can’t find anintermediary to take

their goods to market.Some can’t transporttheir goods, or keepthem fresh, so they sellthem locally and morecheaply. Some lack theinformation that allowsthem to take theirproduce to where it’smore likely to sell. Somelack access to thetechnology, training orcredit that could allowthem to improve theirability to process theirfood, and to grow theirbusinesses. Somestruggle to meet thequality and exportstandards that wouldallow them to sell their

goods abroad. Andwhether by immediatecash needs as at thestart of a school year, orby the simple inabilityto store their goods,some are forced to sellquick - and cheap.

Over the past ten years,research funded by theUK’s Department forInternationalDevelopment, throughits Crop Post-HarvestProgramme, has lookedat some of the mainbarriers to some of theworld’s poorest peoplebringing their goods tomarket. The research

has tried to bringtogether buyers, sellersand facilitators as wellas academics andscientists. Mostimportantly, theresearch has broughtabout change andimprovement. And thatchange has beenmoulded by the verypeople that it seeks tobenefit. That’s the onlyway to make anydevelopment strategysustainable. Only thoseon the ground knowwhat is possible, andonly those who haveproblems with buyingand selling their

produce can tell what ismissing. We have triedto listen to these voices,and make them heard.We talked to people atevery stage of the foodchain, from farmers tostreet vendors to theMinistry of Health,‘from farm to fork’. Thispublication shows whatwe found in twocountries: Ghana andZambia.

It’s a heartening tale ofhow research canimprove lives, of howchange can happen forthe better. Read it tofind out how.

I am taking this cassava from my farm to sell in the market.

When I go to the market, I assess the prices and decide what I

will sell for. Some of the market women also buy my cassava. I

know that the people who buy from me are going to sell the

cassava at a higher price than I will. There is no industry that I

can sell to, because I have no transport. If there was transport

then I would sell to those places, and I would get more profit

than I do at local markets. The immediate problem is getting

my produce to the market. If people do not come to buy this

cassava when I have reached the market, the next problem is

bringing it back. Then I will take it to the road side, but the

prices that I will get are very unpredictable, that is if I find

someone to buy at all.

“

”Akwe BuwaA farmer near Accra.January 2005

Hilary BennUK Secretary of State for International Development

Road to Market


Markets are wherewe buy and sell.We take them

for granted: every day -in our own communities,in our countries, and allaround the world - goodsand services areexchanged.

But in sub-SaharanAfrica, millions of small-holders and cultivatorsof kitchen gardensstruggle to bring theirgoods to market. Theyfind that there aresimply too manyobstacles along the way.Some can’t find anintermediary to take

their goods to market.Some can’t transporttheir goods, or keepthem fresh, so they sellthem locally and morecheaply. Some lack theinformation that allowsthem to take theirproduce to where it’smore likely to sell. Somelack access to thetechnology, training orcredit that could allowthem to improve theirability to process theirfood, and to grow theirbusinesses. Somestruggle to meet thequality and exportstandards that wouldallow them to sell their

goods abroad. Andwhether by immediatecash needs as at thestart of a school year, orby the simple inabilityto store their goods,some are forced to sellquick - and cheap.

Over the past ten years,research funded by theUK’s Department forInternationalDevelopment, throughits Crop Post-HarvestProgramme, has lookedat some of the mainbarriers to some of theworld’s poorest peoplebringing their goods tomarket. The research

has tried to bringtogether buyers, sellersand facilitators as wellas academics andscientists. Mostimportantly, theresearch has broughtabout change andimprovement. And thatchange has beenmoulded by the verypeople that it seeks tobenefit. That’s the onlyway to make anydevelopment strategysustainable. Only thoseon the ground knowwhat is possible, andonly those who haveproblems with buyingand selling their

produce can tell what ismissing. We have triedto listen to these voices,and make them heard.We talked to people atevery stage of the foodchain, from farmers tostreet vendors to theMinistry of Health,‘from farm to fork’. Thispublication shows whatwe found in twocountries: Ghana andZambia.

It’s a heartening tale ofhow research canimprove lives, of howchange can happen forthe better. Read it tofind out how.

I am taking this cassava from my farm to sell in the market.

When I go to the market, I assess the prices and decide what I

will sell for. Some of the market women also buy my cassava. I

know that the people who buy from me are going to sell the

cassava at a higher price than I will. There is no industry that I

can sell to, because I have no transport. If there was transport

then I would sell to those places, and I would get more profit

than I do at local markets. The immediate problem is getting

my produce to the market. If people do not come to buy this

cassava when I have reached the market, the next problem is

bringing it back. Then I will take it to the road side, but the

prices that I will get are very unpredictable, that is if I find

someone to buy at all.

“

”Akwe BuwaA farmer near Accra.January 2005

Hilary BennUK Secretary of State for International Development

Road to Market

Road to market colour 9/2/05 3:50 pm Page 2

Written and Edited by: Georgina SmithPhotography by: John EsserDesigned by: The Clocked Work Design Agency

This publication is an output from the Crop Post-Harvest Research Programme (CPHP) funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), for thebenefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID.

Published January 2005

Contents

Introduction to Warehouse Inventory Credit in Zambia 6

Interviews conducted with stakeholders in Zambia 8

Introduction to Informally Vended Foods in Zambia 14


Introduction to Cassava as an Industrial Commodity in Ghana 24

Interviews conducted with stakeholders in Ghana 26

Contacts 36

Acknowledgments 38


Written and Edited by: Georgina SmithPhotography by: John EsserDesigned by: The Clocked Work Design Agency

This publication is an output from the Crop Post-Harvest Research Programme (CPHP) funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), for thebenefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID.

Published January 2005

Contents

Introduction to Warehouse Inventory Credit in Zambia 6


Introduction to Informally Vended Foods in Zambia 14


Introduction to Cassava as an Industrial Commodity in Ghana 24

Interviews conducted with stakeholders in Ghana 26

Contacts 36

Acknowledgments 38


6

Road to Market

Maize in Zambia isfarmed annually,which means

that at certain times ofthe year, markets tend tobe swamped with excessproduce. Small-holderfarmers typically have tosell their crop early toobtain ready cash, andoften have difficultystoring it for longperiods of time. For thisreason, they are reducedto selling their crop atvery low prices, tosatisfy immediate needs.Farming inputs such asfertilisers need to bebought at an early stagein the planting process.As a result of suchneeds, farmers are oftenforced to sell theirproduce, even thoughprices are low. The lackof marketinginformation available tosmall-scale farmersmeans that local traderscan take advantage oftheir ignorance, and buycrops at very low prices.If there is nowhere tostore the crop untilprices are better, farmershave no choice but toaccept what they areoffered. As one farmerexplains: "It is a matterof giving you a littlebecause you have got aproblem."

The warehouse receiptsystem, also known aswarehouse inventorycredit, was implementedto address post-harvestlosses, mostly withmaize. DFID startedsupporting the NaturalResources Institute(NRI), now part of theUniversity of Greenwich,to carry out research andpilot work on this subjectin 1992, and this was

continued under theCPHP in 1996. The aim ofthe research has been toidentify features ofwarehouse design, whichcan be applied in localcontexts. Field studieswere carried out inZambia and Ghana,including a review ofexisting economicsystems. From thisresearch, and acollaborative technicalassistance project fundedby the Common Fund forCommodities (CFC) from2000 to 2004, a newsystem was developed toaddress storage problemsthat small-scale farmerswere experiencing.

The warehouses havebeen developed toencourage storage,which can reduce theloss of crops throughweevil infestation anddamp. When a crop isdeposited, warehouseoperators can issuewarehouse receiptsagainst the storedcommodity. They aresecure places, whichwill protect and keepcrops until the depositorwishes to collect them,as a form of securecollateral. Warehousesare regulated by theZambian AgriculturalCommodities AgencyLtd. (ZACA), whichoversees warehouseoperations, setting andenforcing commoditystandards. In April 2001,ZACA, headed by ChiefExaminer Mr. MartinHamusiya, wasincorporated as acompany limited byguarantee.

Standards set by ZACAalso ensure that farmers

can, as one communityhas put it, "play themarket". In the past, ithas been difficult topredict prices for maize.New grading andweighing systems givefarmers an idea of whatthey can expect for theircrop. Research wasconducted to testprocedures for assessingquality grain, and areview of end userquality specificationrequirements wascarried out. Onechallenge for the grainsector is qualityuncertainty, so small-holders often sufferdiscounts, and cheatingon weights. Through thewarehouse receiptsystem, farmers knowwhat standards large-scale buyers expect.Warehouses provide aready market place,where traders can buyproducts in bulk. When adepositor feels thatprices are good enough,he can release his cropfrom storage and sell itat a price which suitshim, avoiding the lowprices of the immediatepost-harvest period.

The warehouse receiptsystem also addressesthe problem ofsatisfying immediateneeds when markets areswamped. When adepositor delivers hisgrain, he can secure aloan from any formalfinancial institution,using his grain ascollateral. For small-scale farmers inparticular, this relievesthe stress of having tosell a crop to pay forimmediate concerns likefertilisers and school

uniforms. According toone farmer: "This is thebest thing about thewarehouse receiptsystem." Bankers agreethat the system is verybeneficial to small-scalefarmers. Previously, afarmer would neverhave been able to securea loan with ten bags ofmaize. Now, providedthat the warehouse isZACA guaranteed, andthe borrower is able toproduce a receipt, hecan secure a loan usingmaize as collateral.

Without specifications,formal contracting isdifficult. There is nostamp of quality ongrains, which meansthat securing trust isdifficult. Now, trust isbeing developedbetween financialinstitutions and smallfarming communities,illustrating greatercommunication onmany different levels.The total warehousespace, under thesystem, is currently105,000 tonnes. Banksare often scepticalabout the reliability offarmers to pay backloans, and farmers aresceptical about theease of access tocredit. Withsensitisation andtraining workshops,trust is slowlystitching stakeholderrelationships together.Small-holder access isbeing supported by anIFAD-funded small-holder enterprise,named SHEMP. Now,small-holders can bulkup their crop to sell itfurther down the chainto larger traders.

The system has beensustained throughconsultation withstakeholders at everystage of theimplementationprocess. Supportivelegislation is beingpursued, which isintended to firm up thelending ability offormal financialinstitutions, likebanks. Progress isattracting increasedwarehouse capacityand financing frommajor banks includingStanbic Bank andIntermarket Banking.In the first year aloneof operating, certifiedwarehouses achievedeighty percentoccupancy.

There is progress, butmany people do notknow about the system,or think that they cannot be part of it. Somefarmers are scepticalabout getting loans,others have heard aboutit and would like to findout more. As theSecretary ofKanakantapa CulturalDevelopmentCommunity explains:"At the moment, I thinkthat farmers have beenbattered right, left andcentre by the market. Iffarmers are not givenproper information,they will besuspicious." The KulyaNkona Agric Co-operative has beenformed to developcommunicationchannels and empowerfarmers with marketinformation. These arecrucial linkages neededto reach the poorest,wherever they are.

Road to Market

7

Warehouse Inventory CreditSystems in Zambia


Road to Market

9

Small-scale farmer atChongwe: Mr Stephen Mbafti

Ihave taken someskills that I learntfrom commercial

farms, and appliedthem here. Afterharvesting the maize,we sell it because wehave no place wherewe can store it, so weonly keep a few bagsfor our ownconsumption. We haveworkers here, andthey need salaries tobe paid, soimmediately afterharvesting the maize,we sell it so that wecan find the money topay the workers. Themoney that we willget when we sell tothe Food ReserveAgency is not bad assuch. If we keep themaize here, it will beattacked by weevils,and since we havenowhere to store it,we must sell itimmediately. We needto pay for fertilizers,the fuel, and thetractor, and we alsoneed to cultivate forthe next season.

I think that theproblem with thewarehouses is thatwe do not knowwhat will happennext year, whetherthe price will beup or not, maybethe price will bereduced. That’swhy we sellimmediately, andplant again.

We have heardabout the ZACAwarehouse

system, and we want toget some details. I thinkthat it would help small-scale farmers especially,to have some income afterthey have harvested. Ifthey have to wait forsome time, it is difficult.People tend to havemoney now, but aftersome months they havenothing, because theydon’t have incomes forthe future. They do thisso that they can use thatmoney for other activitiesin the farming situation,and of course to supporttheir families. They havea problem with storage,and are not able to keeptheir crop for a long time,so to avoid wastage theywill sell straight away.With farming being abusiness now, farmersmust be sure of where to

get the resources todevelop their farms. Ifyou are not sure where toget funds, it is verydifficult to operate afarm. The bankingsystem can provide thenecessary support whichwill be useful to peoplewho need immediate cashto develop their farms.People are also not surewhere to sell. They hearthat people are buying,and then they just sell forany price. The problem oforganisation brought usto think of forming theFarmers’ Association.People were not workingtogether, and becausethey were not organised,traders could takeadvantage of them. Wesaw that organisationwould give farmersstrong lobbying power,which could help them tosecure better prices fortheir produce.

Chairman of the Kanakantapa Farmers’ Association: Mr John Tembo

Secretary of theKanakantapa CulturalDevelopment Community:Mr Jophael Mampube

ZACA offers a verypromising kind ofarrangement.

Storage problems lead usto sell our maizeprematurely, I would say.We don’t have the meansto store our produce. Asa Farmers’ Co-ordination Community,we have looked atpossibilities ofintroducing storage, butthe costs are enormous.Because maize has to bekept in certainconditions which we areunable to meet, we mustsell it straight away. Ifwe had the means tostore crops, farmerswould be selling theirmaize at a moreconvenient time, andthey would be able tobuy fertilizers during

the planting season.Because we sold off tooquickly, money is spent.We need to buy thefertilizers now, but wehave no more maize. Weend up planting lessthan we would like. Tohave the farmersorganised is the bestway. We may not have allthe farmers producingenough to take to thestorage depot, but ifthey could cometogether, then theycould raise a figure thatwould be good enough tostore. Also, that helps asa way of monitoring andencouraging thefarmers. The banksgiving credit is the bestthing. Our hope is thatthe interest is not toohigh, eating away at theprofit of our farmers.This is one of the fearsthat they have. Themain problem that theyface is collateral. It is

easier in town, as it ispossible to use yourhouse or your car ascollateral. But farmersare apprehensive to usetheir title deeds becauseif they fail to pay, thenthey lose their land. Theywould have nowhere togo, so they will struggleon their own rather thango to the bank. Bankstend to bombard peoplewith the samerequirements. We needmore information aboutwarehouse receipts, sothat the farmers canhave confidence. We needto explain to themexactly what the systemis all about. At themoment, I think that

farmers have beenbattered right, leftand centre by themarket. If farmers arenot given properinformation, they willbe suspicious. Thesystem itself is verygood, and it issomething that wehave been waiting for.All you need to do iseducate people.Things havehappened before,where farmers thinkthat good things arecoming, and theyended up losing out.But it is not too late.We are seeingconfidence coming upnow.

Road to Market

8

Because we sold off too quickly, money is spent. We need to

buy the fertilizers now, but we have no more maize. We end

up planting less than we would like.

Small-scale farmer atKanakantapa: Mrs Chishala

Our main crop ismaize, and we aretrying to add soya

beans. One of ourproblems is that we donot have enough manpower. We have toemploy one or two boysto assist. We don’t plantwhat we should plant,because the rain startslate here, and when youstart planting with noman power, you can’tplant much. We don’thave bags, or medicine tocontrol pests and keep

the crop for longer.Prices are not good. Inmost cases, we sell ourproduce to the FoodReserve Agency, verycheaply. We need to sellquickly, and we don’thave anywhere to storeto wait for good prices. Ifwe had a storage system,it would help us a lot. Wecould keep the crop andwait for good prices, andwe would not mindpaying for storage. Wecould keep it for months,and if we could findsomeone to help us withstorage, we would bevery pleased. Also, if wecould get a loan from the

bank, it would help verymuch. We could buy amachine to help us plantour crop. My husbandhas been applying andapplying for a loan, buthe has been unable toget one. I have also heardfrom other people thatthe rates of interest arevery high. Transport is amajor problem. Where tofind it? We need money,and we don’t have suchfunds to spend ontransport. The roads arevery rough here, nobridges. Try to visit us inJanuary! I don’t thinkthat you will pass, as theroads will be full of

water. This is a very bigproblem for us as smallfarmers. If we cannotfind a market for ourcrop ourselves, we knowthat we will not get agood price for it, andwait sometimes for threemonths without beingpaid. We need to find analternative market,where the prices will begood. Sometimes traderswill visit us, and theyoffer us peanuts. Whenyou are desperate, andyou don’t havetransport, money oranywhere to store, youhave to sell your crop atany price.

Interviews with stakeholdersfrom Zambia

Storing grain, Wangwa Farms

Inspecting grains, Wangwa Farms


Road to Market

11

Road to Market

10

Warehouse operator atWangwa Warehouse,Chisamba: Mr George Phiri

Ithink that thewarehouses aregood, because

they are safe. It isbetter with ZACA,because there is nowan agent between thefarmer and the buyerof a product. ZACAwill find someone tobuy the crop, andthey are the oneswho organiseeverything. Before,season to seasonthere might not beanywhere to sell. Atthe end of the day,farmers wouldreduce their prices.

Small-scale farmer atKanakantapa: Mr Musama Chilungo

Iam working withmy mother, whohas just started

farming. After Igraduated, I cameback here to helpher. It is our firstyear of farming andwe have not had anyproblems so far, butwe have not reallythought about it. Ithink that thewarehouse receiptsystem sounds verypromising, especiallyif it enables us to geta loan. What I don’tknow about is theinterest, how high isit? I do not yet knowwho I will sell to, butwe are intending tosell straight tomillers.

Small-scale farmer atChongwe: Mr GeorgeMwila Kangwa

After harvestingour maize, wesell immediately.

We take it into town andsell it to the millers. Wehave had somedifficulties with sellingall of our maize.Sometimes we wouldspend maybe one weekwaiting to sell it. Herethere is no propermarket. If you hear thatthere are people buyingmaize, wherever it is,then that is where youmust take it. We don’tstore, in the sense thatwe don’t have properwarehouses. Althoughthere is a co-operativewarehouse, we don’ttake maize there,because we have to pay.If it was free then wewould go there, but as itis we would fail to paythem. The problem thatwe have is trying to find

someone to buy ourmaize. We peasantfarmers do not growthat much, and we arenot sure of the prices.Any price that someonewants to charge us, wehave to take. Just to buyone bag of fertilizer isvery difficult. We arepeasant farmers: youknow, fertilizers aredifficult to find. If webring our maize forstorage, does that meanthat you are going to

tell us the price that weare going to get inMarch next year? Wewould rather like it ifwe knew what that pricewould be in March, thenwe would deliver ourmaize to a warehouse.The problem with

getting a loan is that themoney is an advance,and I will use it. Even ifthe price is not good forme, that money will stillbe claimed back, and itwill have interest.That’s where the fear is.We can’t just be lentmoney without interest.What if we havedifficulties later on?Getting a loan woulddepend on the interest,and if I could get a loan,then I would store.

Where there is a loan,there must beinstructions that willfollow. They don’t justgive loans minus anyargument to follow! Ihave seen thedifficulties. We havemoney annually. I have

got children, I need totake them to school, andI need to eat. You know,I just depend on thattwenty or ten bags ayear. I cannot wait,because in themeantime my childrenwill not go to school.Those who have morevolume of producemight be able to wait,but we cannot. We needthe money. How are wegoing to plough again ifI do not have money and

I am waiting around? Iwill sell just like that,because what I want isto plough again. I don’thave solutions to thoseproblems, so I have tosell whether the price ishigh or low.

Chairman of the KulyaNkona Agri-Co-operativeSociety at Chisamba: Amos Rubani Makweja

Kulya Nkonameans eat andsleep. It is the

opposite of what weexpect our farmers todo, because we mustact as a community andtake responsibility. Wewere finding thatwithout the warehousereceipt system, wecould not keep ourmaize until it could get

good prices. So, wewanted to wait untilthe price would behigher. By December,the prices will behigher, and then wewill sell. That is themain point. Before, wejust got a very poorprice for our maize,because we didn’t knowabout the warehouses.Today, we are safe.Nobody can cheat me,because all my maize iskept where everythingis to be recorded. I nowknow the profit that

my maize will make. Ican look to anyone whowill give me a goodprice, and then sell tohim. From thebeginning, transporthas been a problem.But we managed to getour maize to thewarehouses, and itcannot be a problemnow, because it is paidfor by the buyers of themaize from there. Theypay to get my maize totheir millers. The otherthing that has beengood about the receipt

system is that we canput our maize in thewarehouse, and takethe receipt that we willget to the bank. Thenwe can get a loan fromthe bank, to helpourselves and thefamily. They give us apercentage, like adeposit, while ourmaize is kept in thewarehouse. Our maizeis our security, and thebankers can do whatthey want. They knowwhere your maize is,and that it is safe.

Small–scale farmer atKanakantapa: General James Leke

Igrow beans, Irishpotatoes and maize. Ithink it is a very

welcome idea indeed,especially for this area,because we are so faraway from the market,the roads are not thatgood, and not all of ushave transport. If youare able to, let’s say,trade in that voucherwith someone else whomight be able to give yousome input, for examplefertilizer, then theproduction at your farmwill be going on withoutnecessarily having soldyour crop for cash. Iwould rather have cropin most of my fields atall times, rather thankeeping them full ofsomething which isready for harvest, butyou can’t harvest; youcan’t transport it and soon. Just recently, I hadIrish potatoes which Icouldn’t move because Ididn’t have transport.

During the time I wastrying to secure amarket for that crop, thefield could have beenused to grow somethingelse. I am still unsure ofmy market. If themarket price is indicatedas being in such andsuch a range, it is easierto invest in a crop. I tryto plan my productioncosts so that I will breakeven, or have a smallprofit margin. If I do notknow the price, itbecomes very difficult.Farming is a business,and pricing is verycritical. Traders whocome to buy my cropshave their ears tied tothe market in town. Ifthey know the price atSoweto market, forexample, you can’t go toohigh otherwise theywon’t buy it. I also haveto keep listening to themarket trends; that ishow you can negotiateyour price. I have one ortwo contacts, androughly I know how toprice. There is very littleinformation on market

trends, tradingvegetables and so on.There is literally nothingon television or radio.We need thisinformation to keepabreast. Comingtogether as farmers givesstrength, but it is theattitudes of farmers thatwe have to think aboutas well. Some of themjust come here to relax!Without belonging to aco-operative, I wouldn’thave had any power atthat time. Information interms of groups, I think,is widely known in thesecommunities. It is theattitudes of individualsthat matter. If there isno commitment, then itis not effective. If thefacility and the co-operative were explainedto the people, definitely Ithink that they would beable to come together. Atone time, we thoughtthere were too many co-operatives, and we weretrying to scale themdown! If the principle isright, there is noproblem.

Here there is no proper market. If you hear that there are

people buying maize, wherever it is, then that is where you

must take it.

Farmers at Chismaba

traditional grain storage house


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12

Board member of the KulyaNkona Agri-Co-operativeSociety at Chisamba: Mr Roderick Nyendwa

The receipt systemhas helped us tokeep our maize

safe, and it is treated.There are no insects thatcan tamper with it, and itis safe for a long time.The bankers know thatthe maize is safe. Whenbanks see the receipt,they can give some cashto go and buy more inputsto get ready for the nextseason. Before, we used topanic. Here in the village,we don’t have a safe placeto store maize. What canyou do with it? It wouldbe washed away. But it issafe in the warehouse. Weare very good at growingmaize, and shelling it, butnot storage! Even keepingthe insects away – wedon’t know that one.Previously, we didn’tknow how to come upwith quality maize. Whatwe used to have were a lotof bugs and dirt insidethe crop, and no bags tostore it in. But ZACA havetaught us that there is acertain way of cleaning

maize, and we must getrid of a certain amount oftrash and weevils. Wenow know what we mustcome up with so that ourmaize is good quality.Before we knew aboutZACA, we started takingtwo trucks of thirtytonnes each to Lusaka,and our maize wascondemned. We had toaccept a very low price forthat maize, because it wascheap and of bad quality.What could we do, with atruck in Lusaka, eighty-one kilometres away? Wehad to agree. Now ourfarmers are learning.When we came back fromLusaka after that season,we pushed our farmers togo back and startcleaning their maize, sothat we could come upwith good quality. Thewarehouse receipts are anew thing. I think thebanks are learning,because at least now theyare receiving us – they didnot in the first place.When we took our maizein September, no onewanted to receive us. WithZACA saying ‘this is anew thing, try it’, it isworking.

Assistant manager ofWangwa Warehouse atChisamba: Mr Mwansa Museba

We were one ofthe first peopleto try the

ZACA warehousesystem in Zambia. Ithink it has got a lot ofadvantages, especiallyfor the small-scalefarmers and the peasantfarmers in the villages.Once they havereceipted their maize atone of these certifiedwarehouses, then theydon’t lose it throughrains. People have verypoor storage facilities inthe villages. Once themaize is receipted,farmers are assured of amarket. Even before themaize is sold, once it isreceipted, they can usethe receipt to get part ofthe proceeds from anycommercial banker.When the maize firstcomes in, we weigh it toestablish what thequantity is; it is thentested. Sometimes maizecoming in might beinfested with weevils, orthe grain might be avery poor quality, ordamaged through poorstorage. We grade themaize into grades A, Band C. If it is really badthen we have to rejectit. Once the farmershave receipted theirmaize, they can carry ongrowing for thefollowing season, withthe money that theyhave got from the bank.Previously, if a farmerfails to sell his produce,he would have nomoney to prepare andplant for the following

season’s crop. Once themaize is brought here,we keep it until thefarmer has foundsomeone to buy it. Thefarmer is paid hismoney through ZACA.Once the maize is sold,the bank is paid off andthe farmer is given thebalance. Before thewarehouses were here,most of the crop wouldgo to waste once therainy season was here,because of the poorstorage facilities in thevillages. Previously, ifthe farmer could not geta market, then hismaize would go towaste. Now he doesn’thave to worry about themarket, as long as hecan get his crop into acertified warehouse.People who are lookingfor maize will go thecertified warehouses,and buy maize fromthere. This is a marketactually for the peasantfarmers. They go intofarming knowing thatwhatever they producewill be sold. In the past,people would produce acrop, and perhaps halfof it would go to wastewhen the rains came.The market trends tendto dictate themselves;but once the crop isbought here, farmershave a rough idea ofwhat they will be able tosell their produce for,because it will begraded. A normalwarehouse will not givea certificate which afinancial institution willrecognise, in a formwhich would enableborrowing. ZACA isbacked by the financialinstitutions.

Small-scale farmer atKanakantapa: Mr John Joemwenga

My farm istwentyhectares. My

main crop is maize. I donot use the warehousesdirectly, but I take mymaize to the KulyaNkona Co-op, as I amnow a member. Beforethis, I would sell fromthe field straight to themarket in town. This isan advantage to usbecause, whenever weget our grain, we willstore it until the pricesgo up. What we used todo was sell the crop towhoever came to us tobuy. Taking our crop tothe market involves alot of things: transport,for example. We wereanxious, and all we

wanted was money, sowe would sell to anyonewho wanted to buy. I donot know about theloans from banks. Wegive three-quarters ofour produce to thewarehouse, and sell therest to brief-case buyerswho come here; so thatwe have someimmediate cash. We areexploited by thismethod. There are a lotof other things involvedin our costs: forexample labour,fertilizer. Those peopledo not consider suchthings; and when theycome, they just want tobuy at a lower price. Ifwe take all the maize tothe warehouse, we willstarve. As we arewaiting for the rest ofthe money from thewarehouse, we use

money from what wesell immediately. Wecould get a loanthrough the co-op if wewanted. Loans are anoption, we just don’tknow much about them.We never used to storeanything. We wereexploited, and receivednothing. We havestarted using thissystem because we haveseen that we can getsomething out of it, andwe have started using itthis year. There is adifference between thenand now. We have seenthe benefits and there isa light at the end of thetunnel, but we arelearning. We alsoproduce a better qualityof maize now, it is notjust farming andnothing else; we havemore of a goal.

Small-scale farmer atChongwe: Mr Maybin Kangwa

The problem withkeeping our maizein storage is the

price. After harvesting,the owners of fertilizerand other input costsneed their money. So Ithink that the idea of aloan would be a very goodway of assisting thefarmer. But the problem isthat, once I have kept mymaize in storage for sixmonths, and I have to payfor it, how do I know thatthe price will not be lowerthan it was when I firststarted storing it? I knowsome farmers who havegone to millers looking fora market. According tothe quality of maize, thequality and the standardthat you keep it, if it’s notproper quality, they will

say that they cannot takethe maize, because it hasweevils in it; you have tobuy chemicals for it. Now,we peasant farmerscannot manage, becausewe don’t have money tobuy chemicals. From hereit is too expensive. If wecould find that money,then we would sell tothem, because the price isgood. The problem is thatwe don’t know what theprices will be, and thepeople in the warehouses

do not know either. Wepeasant farmers have fearbecause we have no otherresources. We just dependon one thing, maize, andif I only have onehundred bags, then thatis my future. At least if Isell immediately, theprice will be reasonable.We need to get thatmoney before the raincomes, so that we ploughin time. All I can say isthat there is no otheroption.

Board member of the KulyaNkona Agri-Co-operative atChisamba: Mr Pikita Sakile

Before joining theco-op, I wasstanding on my

own. I completed schoolin 1998, and now I amstaying with my father,but I farm on my own. Ifind this difficultespecially in terms offinding farmingimplements, animals,fertilizers. Forfertilizers, I saw that it

was difficult to obtainthem, so I decided tojoin the co-op, and Ihave already obtained aloan from Mr Makweja.Before joining this co-op, I used to growcotton. I discovered thatthere was less of a profitin cotton, and a lot oflabour was involved. Isold my father’s maize,then after that I broughtmaize, and I joined thisorganisation, where Iam standing as achairman. We have noother means of storage.

Before using the barns[warehouses] we used tosell directly to themillers. Now we wait sothat we can assess themarket. If we find amarket then we will sellthat maize. We have aproblem with storagewhen it is not in thebarns. Sometimes wefind that the termiteswill attack our maize.We only store maizetemporarily in thevillages, then wetransfer it to the barns,which last longer. The

temporary storage thatwe use can be disturbedby rains, so that shellingbecomes difficult. Weonly store temporarily,so that we do not haveto sell straight toprivate buyers. Theproblem with them isthat they don’t give us agood price. It is a matterof giving you a littlebecause you have got aproblem. The warehousereceipt system hasallowed me to buy someimplements. As this ismy first year, I am able

now to have someanimals, and I have gota plough. At least I amat a certain stage. Iused to grow a lot ofcotton, because seeingthe poor market used tohinder me fromgrowing maize. But lastyear I was able to seesomething better thanwhat I achieved fromthe cotton product, andI decided to startgrowing maize. Myneighbours in the areaand I have seen thebenefits.

Warehouse computeroperator at WangwaWarehouse at Chisamba:Mr Moses Kaleshe

Ioperate thecomputers here.Before the

warehouses, I don’tthink farmers knewhow to keep maize. Iwould say thatfarmers did not knowthat maize must bestored with certainmoisture content.They were keeping itat maybe fourteen orsixteen percent; and itwas going bad. ThenZACA introduced anew system forkeeping maize for along time, at themoisture content oftwelve and a halfpercent. We canadvise farmers on howto keep the maize.Because we grade it,they have a betteridea of how muchtheir maize is worth;and they clean it.Farmers are nowhappy in their mindsthat they know whatwe expect.

Farmers at Kulya Nkona

Grain speciment


14

Road to Market Road to Market

15

Improving Food Safety of InformallyVended Foods in Zambia

By empoweringpeople with theknowledge and

technolog y toimprove their ownenvironments, theaim of this projecthas been to benefitsmall -scale, cookedfood vendorsoperating in themarkets of Lusaka inZambia. Manyvendors operatewithout guidelines,as managing par tnerRodah Zulu explains:"I don’t think thatpeople are sensitised,what is it that theyneed to do? Thereshould be some guidelines which peoplehave to follow, forany business." Thisproject has builtupon two years ofresearch. To increasethe nutritional valueof foods, to assist inthe preparation ofsafe foods and togenerate higherincomes, vendorshave been trained toseparate raw andcooked food, to usemetal instead ofplastic plates,amongst otherpractical applicationsof food safety. Bymaking vending sitespermanent, vendorsare more able to lookafter and takeresponsibility fortheir premises. Theproject has adoptedinclusive strategiesof raising awareness.Improving co-ordination andpar ticipation at alllevels has been a keycomponent of thework, feedingpractical and direct

information back intothe research process.

Views collected froma project funded bythe DFID Crop Post-Harvest Prog ramme,and managed by theNatural ResourcesInstitute (NRI) of theUnited Kingdom andthe National Institutefor Scientific andIndustrial Research(NISIR) in Zambia,have been reflected inthe following pages.Adopting a broaderapproach, the projectalso addressesproblems such asunemployment andAIDS which areindirectly related tofood safety.Sustainable andinformativecommunicationchannels have beencreated by reachingthe vendors at theirown level, bringingthem into the processof decision making.This kind ofknowledgeempowerment issustainable becauseunderstanding hasincreased betweendif ferent g roups.Attitudes havechanged dramatically,because in the past,Health Inspectorswould receive abusefrom vendors whofeared being closeddown unreasonablyby the authorities. AsHealth OfficialBrighton Sinkalaexplains: "Even whenwe find that thingsare not right with theresults, we stil l goback. This time, wego back to create a

remedy for thesituation." Despitethe formal protocolthat HealthInspectors must beaccompanied by apoliceman, their roleis understood, andinformation that theygather is shared.

Taking informationand samples fromvendors, withoutproviding them withfeedback, harboursmistrust andmisunderstanding atall levels. Workshopshave helped to trainboth vendors andHealth Inspectors,and to improve therelationship betweenthese two key g roups.These events arepurely informative;there are no materialbenefits forattending. Thisensures thatcompetition betweenvendors is not basedon material benefits,but sustainableinformation. It alsomeans that everyoneattending is there fortheir ownprofessional self -development. Vendorsare also spreadinginformation that theyget from meetingsand workshops.Lill ian, who owns arestaurant in SowetoMarket, explains thatshe is "going round totalk to those peoplewho did not attendthe workshop, so thatthose who did notattend are alsolearning."

Emphasis has beenplaced on involving

key policy makers inthe research, so thatits f indings might beincluded in thenational agenda.Sensitising the policyenvironment, andraising awarenessabout the problemsthat vendors face,have been woven intothe project work fromthe star t. Newlinkages formed withkey policy members,especially with therespective Ministries,have given credibilityto the project and itsfindings. Vendorshave become moreaware of their abilityto influence changewithin theirenvironment; andhave expressed astrong interest ininfluencing othervendors andfacilitating change intheir community.Grace Zulu owns arestaurant in BusekoMarket. "It isimpor tant that wetell those who werenot at the workshop,so that they canchange. If you havegot thedetermination, thenyou can improve,even if you have nomoney."

To improvelaboratory capacityand accuracy, newtechnolog y wasprovided under theproject, includingcomputers and cool-boxes for storingsamples. Previously,the markets were notplaces where samplescould be taken andanalysed in depth, for

both social andtechnologicalreasons. Newlinkages betweendif ferent g roups ofpeople have enabledworkers to deal withproblems before theyoccur, rather thanhaving to deal withthe consequences.Par t of the problemhas beencommunication. AsScientific OfficerAlines Chakwiyacomments: "How doyou explain ‘E.coli ’ toa vendor?" Byimprovingcommunicationbetween HealthInspectors andvendors,understanding ispaving prog ress.

Vendors have takenup suggestions andnew information withg reat enthusiasm.But, as in anyenvironment, there isonly a cer tainamount thatindividuals canachieve. Realprog ress has beenachieved in terms ofawareness-raisingand engaging theenthusiasticpar ticipation of thecommunities, butthey stil l face theproblem of trying towork hygienically inenvironments lackingbasic infrastructure.Absence of runningwater, toilets, drainsand waste removalare major constraintsthat need to beaddressed if the fullpotential benefits ofthe research are to berealised.

Mrs Rosemary Nachepembene, Soweto Market


14


15

Improving Food Safety of InformallyVended Foods in Zambia

By empoweringpeople with theknowledge and

technolog y toimprove their ownenvironments, theaim of this projecthas been to benefitsmall -scale, cookedfood vendorsoperating in themarkets of Lusaka inZambia. Manyvendors operatewithout guidelines,as managing par tnerRodah Zulu explains:"I don’t think thatpeople are sensitised,what is it that theyneed to do? Thereshould be some guidelines which peoplehave to follow, forany business." Thisproject has builtupon two years ofresearch. To increasethe nutritional valueof foods, to assist inthe preparation ofsafe foods and togenerate higherincomes, vendorshave been trained toseparate raw andcooked food, to usemetal instead ofplastic plates,amongst otherpractical applicationsof food safety. Bymaking vending sitespermanent, vendorsare more able to lookafter and takeresponsibility fortheir premises. Theproject has adoptedinclusive strategiesof raising awareness.Improving co-ordination andpar ticipation at alllevels has been a keycomponent of thework, feedingpractical and direct

information back intothe research process.

Views collected froma project funded bythe DFID Crop Post-Harvest Prog ramme,and managed by theNatural ResourcesInstitute (NRI) of theUnited Kingdom andthe National Institutefor Scientific andIndustrial Research(NISIR) in Zambia,have been reflected inthe following pages.Adopting a broaderapproach, the projectalso addressesproblems such asunemployment andAIDS which areindirectly related tofood safety.Sustainable andinformativecommunicationchannels have beencreated by reachingthe vendors at theirown level, bringingthem into the processof decision making.This kind ofknowledgeempowerment issustainable becauseunderstanding hasincreased betweendif ferent g roups.Attitudes havechanged dramatically,because in the past,Health Inspectorswould receive abusefrom vendors whofeared being closeddown unreasonablyby the authorities. AsHealth OfficialBrighton Sinkalaexplains: "Even whenwe find that thingsare not right with theresults, we stil l goback. This time, wego back to create a

remedy for thesituation." Despitethe formal protocolthat HealthInspectors must beaccompanied by apoliceman, their roleis understood, andinformation that theygather is shared.

Taking informationand samples fromvendors, withoutproviding them withfeedback, harboursmistrust andmisunderstanding atall levels. Workshopshave helped to trainboth vendors andHealth Inspectors,and to improve therelationship betweenthese two key g roups.These events arepurely informative;there are no materialbenefits forattending. Thisensures thatcompetition betweenvendors is not basedon material benefits,but sustainableinformation. It alsomeans that everyoneattending is there fortheir ownprofessional self -development. Vendorsare also spreadinginformation that theyget from meetingsand workshops.Lill ian, who owns arestaurant in SowetoMarket, explains thatshe is "going round totalk to those peoplewho did not attendthe workshop, so thatthose who did notattend are alsolearning."

Emphasis has beenplaced on involving

key policy makers inthe research, so thatits f indings might beincluded in thenational agenda.Sensitising the policyenvironment, andraising awarenessabout the problemsthat vendors face,have been woven intothe project work fromthe star t. Newlinkages formed withkey policy members,especially with therespective Ministries,have given credibilityto the project and itsfindings. Vendorshave become moreaware of their abilityto influence changewithin theirenvironment; andhave expressed astrong interest ininfluencing othervendors andfacilitating change intheir community.Grace Zulu owns arestaurant in BusekoMarket. "It isimpor tant that wetell those who werenot at the workshop,so that they canchange. If you havegot thedetermination, thenyou can improve,even if you have nomoney."

To improvelaboratory capacityand accuracy, newtechnolog y wasprovided under theproject, includingcomputers and cool-boxes for storingsamples. Previously,the markets were notplaces where samplescould be taken andanalysed in depth, for

both social andtechnologicalreasons. Newlinkages betweendif ferent g roups ofpeople have enabledworkers to deal withproblems before theyoccur, rather thanhaving to deal withthe consequences.Par t of the problemhas beencommunication. AsScientific OfficerAlines Chakwiyacomments: "How doyou explain ‘E.coli ’ toa vendor?" Byimprovingcommunicationbetween HealthInspectors andvendors,understanding ispaving prog ress.

Vendors have takenup suggestions andnew information withg reat enthusiasm.But, as in anyenvironment, there isonly a cer tainamount thatindividuals canachieve. Realprog ress has beenachieved in terms ofawareness-raisingand engaging theenthusiasticpar ticipation of thecommunities, butthey stil l face theproblem of trying towork hygienically inenvironments lackingbasic infrastructure.Absence of runningwater, toilets, drainsand waste removalare major constraintsthat need to beaddressed if the fullpotential benefits ofthe research are to berealised.

Mrs Rosemary Nachepembene, Soweto Market


Road to Market

17

Istarted cooking inthe market in 1999. Iused to work, but

when I lost my job I satdown and startedthinking if I could startcooking, and I decided togo into the cookingindustry. We were verylucky this year, as wehave had a workshopwhich I have benefitedfrom very much. I waschosen as arepresentative to attendthe workshop, and welearnt a lot of things,especially where foodhygiene is concerned. Wehad a hand out book, anda video about foodpoisoning. I startedchanging things, and Iwent into town, boughtsome material and madeuniforms; that was thefirst thing I did. We werealso told to use metalplates, and although Ihad no money, I amtrying bit by bit tochange things. We alsolearnt that not coveringfood can spread disease;

and that wearingornaments might causefood poisoning if theyfall into food. I consultthe manual if I need toremember something,and I can show others,like my neighbours.They are getting themessage. It is importantthat we tell those whowere not at theworkshop, so that theycan change. If you havegot the determination,then you can change,even if you have nomoney. My customersare appreciating thesechanges, and theycongratulate me becausethey are noticing. In thefuture, I would like tosee running water. Wehave one tap in themarket and it is very far.In my case, sometimes Ihave difficulty gettingboys to fetch me water,and they charge a lot ofmoney, especially whenyou consider that themarket we sell in, food isvery cheap.

Owner of Lillian’sRestaurant, Sowetomarketing Lusaka

Iown my restaurant,which I have beenrunning for eight

years. I have about sixworkers helping metogether with my youngsister. I decided to set upmy business because Ineeded to provide for mychildren, after studyingbusiness at school. I willnot turn my children outonto the street, so I had

to provide for them. Iwent to the workshop tolearn more, so that I canlearn what to do withmy customers. Theytaught us a lot of things,especially about hygiene.In our market, there arethings which we have todeal with; and one ofthem is bad hygiene.Things that we did notknow, we were taught atthe workshop. We learnta lot of things that wedid not know before, andI think that we have

changed. It is not justthat I am telling peoplethat I know. I am goinground to talk to thosepeople who did notattend the workshop, sothat those who did notattend are alsolearning. We used tolose a lot of customers.We saw some pictureswhich taught us thathygiene was important,by comparing thosethings in the pictures tohow we are supposed toprepare and cook our

food. It is now our dutyto teach our friends, sothat they can changealso. Before, we were

just doing things minusknowing. We need moreworkshops in thefuture.

Restaurant vendor, Buseko market in Lusaka: Mrs Grace Zulu

It is not just that I am telling

people that I know. I am going

round to talk to those people who

did not attend the workshop, so

that those who did not attend are

also learning.

Managing Partner forInformally Vended FoodProgramme at the NationalInstitute for Scientific andIndustrial Research (NISIR),in Lusaka: Dr Rodah Zulu

There have been alot ofcomplications in

terms of livelihood,particularly with theHIV epidemic andunemployment. Theproject was trying to seeif informally vendedfoods could be made asustainable source ofincome. Theenvironment in whichpeople were trading wasvery unattractive.Although it is early toassess incomes, therehave been significantimprovements. I don’tthink that people aresensitised; what is itthat they need to do?There should be someguidelines which people

have to follow, for anybusiness. Before theproject, there existed arelationship betweenmembers of thecoalition partners. NowI can say that thisrelationship has beenstrengthened, especiallybetween theEnvironmental HealthOfficers and thelaboratory personnel.The laboratory staffwent into the field to seehow the samples werecollected, and theHealth Officers went tothe labs to see how theanalysis is being done.Vendors did not realisethat they were actuallykilling people thoughtheir practices, andtheir handling of food.Each result from thelaboratories wasexplained, and thishelped vendors tounderstand the dangers.In the future, we want to

continue working withthe vendors. We feel thatthis interaction isnecessary so that peoplecan trust us in thefuture. We cannot juststart and then stopactivities. What isdifferent about thisproject is that we haveinvolved all criticalplayers, from the policymaker, to theimplementer, to thebeneficiary. Here, theinformation was beingdiffused into the

community immediately,with no need fordissemination after theproject is finished.There has been a greatchange in the way thatthe project has beenimplemented. Weincorporatedinformation in such away that practical partswere compulsory. Whenit came to the vendors,it was moreparticipatory. We usedlots of pictures, to showscenarios, but from their

own environment sothat they could identifywith them. We alsoallowed vendors to givetheir own ideas; forexample, they have allpicked their ownuniforms. It came fromthem, and they havedecided slowly tochange. Also, we couldnot train all of thevendors; but the way theinformation was passedto vendors, it hasenabled them to trainothers.

Road to Market

16

When it came to the vendors, it was more participatory. We

used lots of pictures, to show scenarios, but from their own

environment so that they could identify with them. We also

allowed vendors to give their own ideas; for example, they

have all picked their own uniforms. It came from them, and

they have decided slowly to change.

Interviews with vendors fromZambia

Owner of Lillian’s Restaurant


Road to Market

18

Road to Market

19

Environmental Health Officer,Ministry of Health, Lusaka: Mr Brighton Sinkala

My main role is tocollect samplesfrom the market,

providing scientificinformation to thevendors, with theknowledge that they haveto improve the safety oftheir food. I am thecontact person from thevendor to the personworking in the laboratory.We tell vendors aboutpersonal hygiene, thehygiene of the premises,food hygiene; we also talkabout contamination andhow it can be prevented.Other innovations inplace are shown in theway that vendors servetheir customers. If theyhave been using a dish forwashing their hands,

since there is no runningwater in the markets, weprovide them withbuckets with a tap in thebottom, which enhancesfood safety. Before thisproject was implemented,there were workshops, butthey did not emphasisepractice. This one goesright back to the vendor,so that he can benefitfrom it. Together thevendors would help todevelop the interventionsto curb the situation. Ihave not seen this before.Initially, the vendors’perception was: "Here arepeople coming tovictimise us". We nowcome up as partners indevelopment with thevendors. There has beenan attitude change. If I goto the market, I will bewelcomed with lessprotocol. Before they

would not allow us evento take a picture, nowthey pose for pictures!Even when we find thatthings are not alrightwith the results, we stillgo back. In the past, wewould go back to closetheir premises, this timewe went back to create aremedy for the situation.This has createdappreciation for theproject, for vendors toaccept us. The fruits arebeing seen, as there is away that they can markettheir food stores, throughthe health packages thatwe have been providing.We have also producedmanuals and posters,which are more user-friendly and longerlasting. Policy makershave been in agreementwith our proposals. Weare trying to pass by-laws,

because of someremarkableimprovements, to enablevendors to obtain licences.Some vendors haveactually gone to theextent of changing thestructures of theirrestaurants. They havebought water tanks sothat customers can washtheir hands. There is aneed to motivate vendors,by saying that weappreciate theircommitment to thisprogramme by licensingthem. I think that policymakers are now in a keyposition to do something.Some markets, you willfind have over fourhundred food vendors,and yet they have norunning water. Theyhave one stand pipe, fromwhich all of them have todraw. The same is true of

refuse collection, and thetoilets, with such anerratic supply of water.That is the responsibilityof the authorities. Peopleare trying to clean theirpremises, the vendors aredoing their very best tolive up to the knowledgethat they have perceived.When we have takensurface swabs and foundgerms, we have gone backafter the workshops, andfound that vendors havebought detergents andminimised the danger.The project has reachedvendors on the level thatthey can adjust thingsaround them, and theydo. In as far as there is anexchange of information,vendors see thedifference. They even ask:"What about thoseresults?" They appreciatewhat we are doing.

Health Inspector, LusakaCity Council: Mr Chabala Chanda

Akey problemsthat we facewith vendors in

the markets, is that weare not able to controltheir operations, as wedo other restaurants,with for exampleminimum standards.With the coming of theproject, we haverealised that we can setup certain minimumstandards, whichvendors can complywith. Selectedmarketers were trainedin food and personalhygiene, and alsostorage. Since thesevendors are small-scale,we promote coveringfood from flies, andsome managed to get

fridges. Initially,vendors would justdisplay their productsout in the open, so thatcustomers could seethem. We pointed outthat vendors could stilllet customers see theirfood, by covering itwith transparentcovering, whileprotecting the foodfrom contamination.Some entrepreneurshave come up with newideas, such as a waterdrum with a tap in thebottom of it, which wehave promoted,because the cost isquite affordable.Vendors simply did notknow about certaindiseases, andinformation has notbeen passed in this waybefore, when it isbrought down to their

level, and they canunderstand the reasonsfor contamination. Thevendors were shownthe procedure of whatHealth Inspectors dowith the samplescollected, and why.This has changed theirattitudes of what weare here to do as publicHealth Inspectors, sothat they understandthat it doesn’t just stopat them. It has a rippleeffect to the health ofthe public as well. Youcan see a markeddifference betweenthose who haveattended theworkshops and thosewho have not. Theirrestaurants are cleaner,they wear uniforms,and they know how tohandle their food andwater more safely.

Vendor at Soweto Market



Road to Market

18

Road to Market

19

Environmental Health Officer,Ministry of Health, Lusaka: Mr Brighton Sinkala

My main role is tocollect samplesfrom the market,

providing scientificinformation to thevendors, with theknowledge that they haveto improve the safety oftheir food. I am thecontact person from thevendor to the personworking in the laboratory.We tell vendors aboutpersonal hygiene, thehygiene of the premises,food hygiene; we also talkabout contamination andhow it can be prevented.Other innovations inplace are shown in theway that vendors servetheir customers. If theyhave been using a dish forwashing their hands,

since there is no runningwater in the markets, weprovide them withbuckets with a tap in thebottom, which enhancesfood safety. Before thisproject was implemented,there were workshops, butthey did not emphasisepractice. This one goesright back to the vendor,so that he can benefitfrom it. Together thevendors would help todevelop the interventionsto curb the situation. Ihave not seen this before.Initially, the vendors’perception was: "Here arepeople coming tovictimise us". We nowcome up as partners indevelopment with thevendors. There has beenan attitude change. If I goto the market, I will bewelcomed with lessprotocol. Before they

would not allow us evento take a picture, nowthey pose for pictures!Even when we find thatthings are not alrightwith the results, we stillgo back. In the past, wewould go back to closetheir premises, this timewe went back to create aremedy for the situation.This has createdappreciation for theproject, for vendors toaccept us. The fruits arebeing seen, as there is away that they can markettheir food stores, throughthe health packages thatwe have been providing.We have also producedmanuals and posters,which are more user-friendly and longerlasting. Policy makershave been in agreementwith our proposals. Weare trying to pass by-laws,

because of someremarkableimprovements, to enablevendors to obtain licences.Some vendors haveactually gone to theextent of changing thestructures of theirrestaurants. They havebought water tanks sothat customers can washtheir hands. There is aneed to motivate vendors,by saying that weappreciate theircommitment to thisprogramme by licensingthem. I think that policymakers are now in a keyposition to do something.Some markets, you willfind have over fourhundred food vendors,and yet they have norunning water. Theyhave one stand pipe, fromwhich all of them have todraw. The same is true of

refuse collection, and thetoilets, with such anerratic supply of water.That is the responsibilityof the authorities. Peopleare trying to clean theirpremises, the vendors aredoing their very best tolive up to the knowledgethat they have perceived.When we have takensurface swabs and foundgerms, we have gone backafter the workshops, andfound that vendors havebought detergents andminimised the danger.The project has reachedvendors on the level thatthey can adjust thingsaround them, and theydo. In as far as there is anexchange of information,vendors see thedifference. They even ask:"What about thoseresults?" They appreciatewhat we are doing.

Health Inspector, LusakaCity Council: Mr Chabala Chanda

Akey problemsthat we facewith vendors in

the markets, is that weare not able to controltheir operations, as wedo other restaurants,with for exampleminimum standards.With the coming of theproject, we haverealised that we can setup certain minimumstandards, whichvendors can complywith. Selectedmarketers were trainedin food and personalhygiene, and alsostorage. Since thesevendors are small-scale,we promote coveringfood from flies, andsome managed to get

fridges. Initially,vendors would justdisplay their productsout in the open, so thatcustomers could seethem. We pointed outthat vendors could stilllet customers see theirfood, by covering itwith transparentcovering, whileprotecting the foodfrom contamination.Some entrepreneurshave come up with newideas, such as a waterdrum with a tap in thebottom of it, which wehave promoted,because the cost isquite affordable.Vendors simply did notknow about certaindiseases, andinformation has notbeen passed in this waybefore, when it isbrought down to their

level, and they canunderstand the reasonsfor contamination. Thevendors were shownthe procedure of whatHealth Inspectors dowith the samplescollected, and why.This has changed theirattitudes of what weare here to do as publicHealth Inspectors, sothat they understandthat it doesn’t just stopat them. It has a rippleeffect to the health ofthe public as well. Youcan see a markeddifference betweenthose who haveattended theworkshops and thosewho have not. Theirrestaurants are cleaner,they wear uniforms,and they know how tohandle their food andwater more safely.




Road to Market

21

Road to Market

20

Restaurant owner atMtendere market inLusaka: Mrs Veronica Tembo

Ihave been runningmy business foreight years. I failed

my grade nine, and Ihave a child. Myhusband left me, and Isat down to think of mychild and my parents.Instead of troubling myparents, I started mybusiness just usingcoins! Now I have fourchildren and a husband,and the restauranthelped me to feed mychild, who is now doing

grade eleven at school.The capital of starting adifferent type ofbusiness is very high,but a restaurant is easyto start up. I havenoticed some very bigchanges since theproject and othersupport has started. Onmy side, since thetraining, business isOK. There is animprovement in mycooking, which peopleare noticing. I want tolearn more, I know thatI can change myposition throughlearning. I have beenmaking new uniforms,

but we can’t do it fastbecause it meansmoney. We havepromised to makechanges bit by bit. Now,we are able to keep foodsafer, and we have beentrying to find a wayaround the waterproblem, as we onlyhave one tap. Withoutwater, there is nothingthat we can dohygienically; but if wesort this out then it willbe easier. I have taughtmy workers what I havelearnt at the workshop.I am also making otherchanges, and I havebought new plates.

Scientific Officer, NationalInstitute for Scientific andIndustrial Research in Lusaka:Dr Alines Chakwiya

My part in thisproject is mainlydoing

micro–analysis. I thinkthat the main problemthat vendors face is thatthey can only contributewith what theirenvironment is like in themarkets. Theinfrastructure in themarket is a problem. Inmost cases the vendorsdon’t have water, andmost of what they do useis recycled. This isreflected in the samplesthat we get. I attendedthe workshop training ledby the project. We saw

that most of themappreciated what theywere told. Vendors had noknowledge of the kind ofcontamination that theywere causing due to theirhabits. From that time,they very muchappreciate what theyhave learnt, why they cando one thing and notanother. I think thatpictures were the mosteffective method oftransferring informationin the workshops. Therewas the problem oftranslating diseases. Howdo you explain E.Coli to avendor? All you say isthat there are germsthere, although they areinvisible, they arecontagious. We showedthem pictures, and they

got it. They knew aboutdiseases associated withgerms, but there was noknowledge about habitsassociated with thosediseases. Mostly,contamination is fromraw to cooked food. Theproject has greatlyaffected the behaviourand attitudes of vendors,because even as you goround the markets,vendors are trying tointroduce running water.They know the reasonswhy, and they are doingit. They now wearuniforms, and rubbish isproperly collected beforethe end of the day. Forthe future, it would begood to see this projectintegrated into nationalpolicy.

Ministry of Health inLusaka: Mrs Christabel Malijani

We find thatpeople have tolook for

anything make – shift,and we have been facedwith the problem ofoperating undersanitary conditions. Atthe moment, it is tooearly to say thatinfrastructure hasimproved. But theknowledge that hasbeen imparted haschanged something.People are aware of foodcontamination, more orless poison to theconsumer. They areaware of that now, andthey are aware of whatthey need to do in thefuture. Some of themused to have containersfor washing the sameplates in the same waterfor the whole day. Frommy own observation,there are changes.Vendors are now able tosay: "When I am in thisenvironment, I shoulddo this or that". These

workshops are the firstof their kind. It was notjust a question ofteaching vendors. Therewas the lab component,whereby people wereshown the amount ofgerms before and afterwashing their hands.You don’t need a lot ofmoney to provide acontainer with a tap. Iam sure this idea hasbeen passed to others inthe market. Somevendors had theknowledge as they wentto school, but they didnot know the directionin which to practicallyundertake it. Theyneeded guidance on howto move from the firststep. Now they knowhow to move, withintheir own means. Doyou need any money towash your hands? Wecreated relationshipsand communicationwhich were not therebefore. The police-mantype of relationship hasdisappeared, andvendors even complainthat we have not been tosee them!

I want to learn more, I know that I can

change my position through learning. I have

been making new uniforms, but we can’t do

it fast because it means money.

Restaurant owner atSoweto market in Lusaka:Mrs Florence Mitimingi:

Istarted myrestaurant in 1996.The extra money that

I have got from mybusiness, I use to helpmy family at home. Ihave got six children,and I do not stay withmy husband, who livessome hours away. I mustprovide for them: andafter I left school, Idecided to go intobusiness. I had nochoice: and it was myresponsibility to lookafter my children, and Ialso have to look afterfour other orphans aswell. I have startedlearning a lot from theproject. They camearound to ask us if wewould join theworkshop, and Iattended the one inLusaka. I learnt thatrunning water is betterfor people. Before theproject, we used to usethe same water forwashing and cooking.We get the water fromthe taps in the citymarket, as we have notaps here. The water isvery far away: but whenit is here, we boil andgive it to customers touse before and aftereating. We also have notoilets; there is a bigdistance to go. Becauseof that, we sometimes

lose customers. Wewould like more workshops, so that we canlearn more, and improveour business. As we aretalking now, we haveseen a big change. Youcan see that the place isclean now. We know howto separate and storefood, which we put inthe fridge. We used toexpose our food so thatcustomers can see whatthey are going to buy.They told us to keep thefood kept away. Whenthe customer comes,they choose from thecounter what they want.We have explained thesethings to our customers,and they have alsolearnt. They dounderstand, and they dofollow. My customersknow that this is a cleanplace, and even whenthey learn that theprices are higher, theydo not complain. We alsotell other vendors aboutthis. We went around tothirteen places, and wetold our friends aboutthese practices. Weexplained to them goodand bad practices. I wantto learn more about thethings which I don’tknow. We need to learna lot. As you know, wecan only start on theground. We can see thedifferences, and we haveworked our way up instages. I think that I ameven becoming fat!

Restaurant owner atMtendere market inLusaka: Mr George Phiri

Iown this restau-rant, which I havebeen running for

one year. I operatetogether with my wife.We attended aworkshop, where wewere trained in foodsafety for the vendors.There is a bigdifference now. I havebecome knowledgeableof things which Ishould or should notdo to improve myrestaurant. Forexample, I did notknow that plasticdishes were so difficultto clean, and that wemust get rid of them.Even before theworkshops, we havebeen working togetherwith Health Inspectorsto help improve onhygiene and condit-ions in the market.The visits fromInspectors have helpedus to use our smallplaces properly and tokeep them safe. Withmore visits andinformation, I thinkthat the future isbright forimprovements. We didnot notice what wehad to change before.With the extra moneythat I have made, I buyother things toimprove the restau-rant, because if I don’tdo that then improve-ment will not be grad-ual. Now that I have alittle money spare, Ican afford clothes andshoes for the children,and their schooling.

Customers at Grace Zulu’s restaurant in Busekomarket in Lusaka: Mr Albert Phiri, Mr KennethChuya, Mr James Kalenga and Mr Jeff Banda

It is a clean restaurant, with a lot of respectfrom the owner. It is different from otherrestaurants. Even when we have eaten, our

appetites are still there. We should continuethis type of cooking, and we will be comingevery day!

Restaurant owner atMtendere market in Lusaka:Mrs Veronica Tembo

Iam the owner of thisrestaurant. I have beenhere for almost six

years. Over the six years, I

have noticed someproblems. The prices thatwe sell at are very low,and I find it difficult tomake a profit. People inthese markets do not havea lot of money to spend.But over the years there

have been some positivechanges. Before, when Istarted this place, I didnot have so manycustomers. The secret wehave now is how to lookafter our customers. Nowwe are doing fine. I was at

the workshop, and I havelearnt how to improve ourhygiene most especially.We learnt how to usechlorine to clean water,and how to cover food,and our food is just moreappetizing.

Mrs Florence Mitimingi, Soweto Market

Street Vendore at Mtendere Market


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Health Co-ordinator,Soweto market in Lusaka:Mr Dickens Chileshe

My role isteachinghealth

education in foodhygiene and foodcleanliness. Our maintarget has been thosewho prepare cookedfood. Of late, therehave been a range ofproblems, ranging frompoor storage of rawand cooked food,uncovered food, andthe poor drainage

systems. There were nouniforms, and anyonewould participate inthe cooking. Weintroduced uniforms inorder to identify thosewho were cooking, andto make sure that thoseselling have cleanclothing. I think thatwe have learnt a lotfrom this programmethat we did not knowbefore. Especiallythings like providingrunning water,preparing cleansurfaces, how to cleanthe working

environment. Weinspect the premisesevery day. There hasbeen a tremendousimprovement since theworkshop which wehave noticed. A cleanenvironment willattract morecustomers. Our vendorsare confessing thattheir businesses haveimproved. For thefuture, we are lookingforward to improvingwaste disposal andsewage facilities, andalso to extendingservices to others.

Cook in Lillian’srestaurant, SowetoMarket in Lusaka: Miss Ruth Phiri

Idid not go to theworkshop, but Ihave been taught

to change waterfrequently by thosewho did. I have alsolearnt to cleanbuckets where weleave water forcustomers, and to useclean uniforms. Thisis my first job in the

food industry. I havebeen here for threemonths, and I thinkthat there is a verybig difference betweenhere and other places;you can see because itis clean. I know thatcustomers feel athome here, and I amlooking forward to thetime when everyonecan be trained,because I am unhappywhen not everyonecan work to thesestandards.

Aunt Rose’s Restaurant,Soweto Market in Lusaka:Mrs RosemaryNachepembene

Ihave been runningthis restaurant forthe past ten years,

since I have retired. Istarted because I canmake a better livingthis way; when you arebusy, your mind ishappy. I am also verybusy, because I alsooperate during thenight. First of all, Istarted looking for aplace, and bit by bit Ihave been trying toimprove it. I did attendthe workshop, and it

was very helpful, butwe need to make ourplaces better. Myattitude has reallychanged after theworkshop, as I saw thatwe were really behind.In the future, I thinkthat the workshopsand Health Inspectorscan help us, and makeour businesses a betterplace. The workshophas helped me to beenlightened. I knownow how to look aftermy customers, and tokeep food, and mycustomers are eventelling me that theyhave noticed adifference.

For the future, we are looking

forward to improving waste

disposal and sewage facilities,

and also to extending services

to others.

Restaurant owner atSoweto market in Lusaka:Mrs Brenda Mukamba

Ihave been runningthis restaurant forone year and six

months. I work formyself, but I have threehelpers. I decided to setup a restaurant,because it is a fastbusiness, and peopleneed to eat every day. Ihave customers from allover. I used to work in a

restaurant, and so Idecided to set this upwhen I left. I went tothe workshop, and welearnt a lot of things. Ihave had to improve oncleanliness, andlearning to separatefish and chicken isimportant to preventdiseases. We also learntdifferent storagemethods. Before, whenwashing plates, wewould not use twobowls for clean and

dirty water. Now weknow that we have touse one for drinking,and another forwashing. Now we washvegetables in separatewater from that whichwe use to drink. I putchlorine, which will killgerms, in the water thatI use. We learnt a lot inthe workshop, and weare hoping to haveanother one. I also havea manual on personalhygiene.

Veronica Tembo, Soweto Market

Traditional maize dish


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The Sustainable Uptake of Cassava as anIndustrial Commodity in Ghana

Traditionally inGhana, cassava isgrown as an

intercrop to providefood security for small-scale farmers. It cansurvive very harshconditions such asdrought, which isimportant when themajority of farmers inGhana rely upon rainfed and not irrigationmethods of wateringtheir crop. Afterharvesting, it is sundried or smoked, andsold for domesticconsumption in theform of kokonte. Butthere is a surplus ofthis product in localmarkets. Cassava isviewed as a crop of lowvalue; at times whenproduction is high, itoften cannot be sold.Fresh cassava onlylasts for a couple ofdays, and if it cannot besold then it goes bad orremains un-harvestedas an in-groundsurplus.

Kokonte is known as apoor man’s food, andliterally means that youmust face the wall sothat no one can seewhat you are eating.Building upon sevenyears of previousresearch funded by theCrop Post-HarvestProgramme, theresearch team managedby the NaturalResources Institute andthe Food ResourcesInstitute in Ghana andnow expanded toinclude others, havediscovered that cassavaactually has a hugeamount of potential. Itcan be converted intodifferent products

which can be sold forindustrial uses. It canbe milled into flour andused in a variety ofmarkets.

By processing cassavainto High QualityCassava Flour (HQCF),it can be used forexample, in bakingproducts. In order toprovide a ready marketfor potential users ofthe flour, and toprevent disappointmentand distrust of theproject, bakers wereshown cakes made fromcassava before theywere asked to try it forthemselves. Mrs GladysWilson attendedworkshops led by theresearch project, andnow uses cassava flourin her baking. Sheexplains: "If you wantto use cassava flour,you have to put in moreingredients, but it ischeaper. There is aready market for thisflour. In some towns,people have neverheard of it before, andthey are very excitedabout it". Using cassavaflour as a substitute forwheat flour isimproving profitmargins for bakers byas much as onehundred and sevenpercent.

The private sector hascollaborated with theresearch team toimprove methods ofcassava processing forspecific end users.Three medium-scaleprocessing companiesnow source their supplyof cassava from overone thousand farmersin the Brong Ahafo and

Greater Accra Regions.Introducing cassavaproducts to theseindustries is providingsmall-scale farmerswith markets for a cropwhich was previouslygoing to waste.Sourcing cassava fromlocal communities,companies such asAmasa Agro–ProcessingLtd, Feed and Flour Ltdand Afrimart Ltd areproviding a reliablesource of income forfarmers previouslyworried about wherethey could sell theirproduce.

It has been importantto sensitise bothfarmers and industrialend users about thepotential markets forcassava flour. Toensure that the uptakeof cassava in industryis sustainable, endusers need a guaranteeof regular supply.Farmers need to knowthat new varieties ofcassava they grow willbe sold. Previously,traditional methods ofpreparing cassava werenot providing a reliablemarket. Due to lack ofstorage, thesetraditional methods ofpreparing cassavameant that it would gobad in a matter of days.

Amanfro communityexplained: "Accordingto our system, whenthe rains are here wenormally encounterproblems withmarketing. In the past,there was often toomuch cassava, becauseeverybody washarvesting. Whateverprice was being offered,

we would have to takeit. Now we have astandard price for whatwe produce throughthis new process."HQCF can be storedover years, providedconditions arefavourable, providingincome on a regularbasis.

Mr. Kwasi Oware,Director of AmasaAgro Processing, haspromoted the project asa way of mendingbroken links betweenfarmers and end users."My vision is thepromotion of a linkagefrom the farm, to thefactory, to the market."Project manager DrNanam Dziedzoave ispleased with theprogress: "Theharmony that existsbetween the end users,the suppliers, thesmall-scale processorshas achieved its aim.We advertise, and liaisewith extension workerswho have constantcontact with farmers.Fortunately nowcassava is becoming acash crop, where beforeit was seen as a poorman’s food."

On an industrial scale,the flour can be usedin plywood productionas a glue–extender, andas a base forpaperboard adhesive.These markets werepreviously suppliedwith imported wheatflour and starch-basedadhesives. Researchtrials were carried outin several factories toassess the specificrequirements for theend user, and to modify

the flour accordingly.Western VeneerPlywood factory is thelongest and mostregular end user ofHQCF. Extensiveresearch andparticipation withWestern Veneer intesting samples andimproving qualities inthe flour, such asviscosity, have createdopportunities forcassava flour as anindustrial commodity.The factory is nowusing one hundredpercent cassava flour,and no longer requireswheat flour as a rawmaterial.

Through this project,alternative markets forcassava products arecontinuously beingdeveloped. A newmethod of convertingcassava into glucosesyrup has beendeveloped for use inconfectionary, andindustrial alcohol. Inthe future, marketlinkages need to bestrengthened to givesmall-scale farmerseasier and fasteraccess to readymarkets. Withcontinuingsensitisation andcommunication, thefuture of cassava looksbright. Mr. KwasiOware comments: "Thesaying is that if youeat kokonte, you mustface the wall. Throughresearch, we have comeup with a product thatis acceptable to themiddle-income group.No one will face thewall again. We aregoing to face thepeople!”

Cassava farmer near Accro


Chief of KokofuCommunity: Mr George Kwojo

Now we can useextra money topay for the

children’s school fees.Formerly, we wereusing kokonte, and itcould not last. Theinformation that we gotwas that we realised wecan make cassava flour.Some people came andsaid that they couldprovide us with amachine so that wecould turn our cassava

into flour, and improveit. No one was buyingthe kokonte, so we likedto change the moneyinto cassava flour,which we are doingnow. The cassava flouris more beneficial thankokonte. We can load alot of sacks of kokonte,but no one will comefor it. With cassava,even if we make a smallsack, someone willcome for it, and we willget our money. We donot have an idea aboutsearching for a market.I know that by and by,

this will help thevillage. If we do thework and get thebuyers, we can send ourchildren to school, andwe can progress. Thishas started happeningnow. If we are gettingmoney, then we arehappy. We can see thebenefits. Now, if weplant cassava, we knowthat people will comeand buy it. Our groupall have belief and trustthat this work will beprogressive. We willhave support, and thisis progressive to us.

Farmer at Kokofu: Mrs Mary Asaouaa

Ihave about two acresof cassava farm.Cassava is an

intercrop of the yam thatI grow, and it gives mebetter income. At first,the cassava prices werevery bad. Now they arebetter. One thing is thatyam is our staple foodhere. Cassava is always anintercrop over here, as itdoes not need any inputthroughout the year. Inthe past, we did not knowof a place where we couldsell cassava. At themoment, it has been usedin different processes, andthere is always a marketfor what we have. I havegot five children, who arelearning in Atebubu. Ihave got labourers whohelp me to harvest; andwhen the land is hard,labour is a littleexpensive. The money

that I get from thecassava flour will help topay for this, and this doesnot worry me. In the pastthis would be a worry,because no one would buyit, and we would not havemoney to pay for suchthings. The problem thatwe have now is transport,as we currently use abicycle. We have money asa community, but it is notenough to by a truck. Ihave lived here for morethan ten years. Before,when I came to thevillage, people weremaking cassava chips;there was no money andthe community was nothappy about the futurebecause we had an excessof cassava. When we firstheard of the project, wehad a doubt. Wewondered: ‘How can thishelp us?’ But we saw thataccess was opened, andwe have hope for thefuture.

Farmer at Kokofu: Mr Kojo Tekyi

Iam a farmer. This year, my cassava farm is three acres. I also growsweet potato. If I compare these two things, I realise that the cassava ismoving faster: this year alone I have made more from my cassava. The

difference that I have found is that, from the money that I have made, Ihave been able to make some changes. If I can get more money, then I cansend my children to school.

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My role is tosupervise anddirect the

community in carryingout the correct process.The process involves sometechnicalities, and I amthe technical person whoguides the community toproduce the cassava flourand glucose syrup. Wehave a room which wasbuilt specifically toproduce the glucosesyrup. We were told aboutthe process from the FoodResearch Institute. Whenwe first started producingthe flour and syrup, weperceived that fungus wasgrowing on it. We told theInstitute; they did somemore research, and nowwe have a process that wecan use. We were taughtin a group. Farmers don’tunderstand thetechnicalities, and I guidethem. At first, farmerswondered how they couldproduce glucose syrupfrom cassava, and theywere not convinced fromthe start. But, later on,

they have seen that theprocess works, and that itcan be converted, andthey are now eager tolearn. We have a lot ofcassava here, and rice thatis used to produce glucosesyrup, grown by thefarmers themselves. Thisis the first project of thiskind in this area. Thesurplus of cassava hasnow had added value; andthe money that farmersget has been increased,and improved thefinancial situation here.We went to a workshop inAccra, and we saw all ofthe different uses forcassava. We have seenthat those new marketscan give us opportunities.The only thing is thatthose companies are faraway. If they can openanother small branchnear by, that will open upthe cassava flour in thisarea. Our flour iscollected from here, butthe periods are notregular because of thedistance.

Agricultural Extension Officer at Kokofu: Mr Peter Fiashidey

Interviews conducted withstakeholders in Ghana

Farmers at Kokofu: Mrs Afia Mansa and Mrs MaryOwusuya

We grow yamand cassava.We grow one

acre each of cassava. Ihave nine children,and Mary has fourchildren and also somegrand-children. Ourchildren go to school,and some of them arein town, learning atrade like tailoring and

hairdressing. It is thecassava that is helpingus to support them. Ifthe trade can go thatlittle bit higher, wemight even be able tosend them touniversity. Thosemaking bread in townwill also come and buyour flour, and this hasincreased our income.During the past years,before we producedthe flour, there wouldcome a time when noone would buy, and all

the cassava would goto waste. Now we cansend it to a biggermarket in Accra. Itwill be taken to Accra;maybe in the future,companies will beinterested in this evenmore. First, wedoubted the ideasbehind this newmethod of cassavaproduction. But wehave seen businessgrow. We thought thatwe would be left withno cassava!

First we doubted theideas behind this newmethod of cassavaproduction. But we haveseen business grow. Wethought that we wouldbe left with no cassava!"

Cassava after harvert at Amasa Agro-processing Company


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Project Manager at the FoodResearch Institute, Ghana: Dr Nanam Tay Dziedzoave

Alot of noise hasbeen made aboutthe potential of

cassava, but it is notmatched by an aggressivesearch and sensitisation ofthe markets. There wereno industries that usecassava as a raw material,and the concern of theproject was that industriesuse large quantities ofmaterial. If cassava couldbe converted into anindustrial raw material,then the level of

utilization would increasetremendously, and wewould have a biggermarket. Throughworkshops, we havegenerated interest in thepotentials of cassava. Welooked at developing themarket potential and fine-tuning the development ofthe flour to be able to meetthe requirements ofindustry. We also looked atnew markets; for example,industrial alcohol andglucose syrup. Wesensitised the industrialstakeholders, so that theywould realise the value ofthis work. To minimise

scepticism, we did not justgo to communities likeWatro to ask them toproduce flour. We wentfirst to the bakers inAtebubu, and trainedthem in the utilisation ofthe cassava flour. Whenwe went to Watro, all thatwe had to tell them was:‘Look, the bakers inAtebubu are already usingthat type of flour, and ifyou produce this quantityevery month, we will payyou and give it to thosebakers.’ We brought theWatro community and theBakers’ Associationtogether, and let them

negotiate the supply ofthe flour. We then stoppedmediating between thetwo, and let the processrun by itself. Ourapproach has been to takethe private sector partnerson board, looking forthem, promoting the ideato them, letting them buythe idea, and walkingalong with them indeveloping the business ofsupplying. What hasexcited us about theproject has been thecoalition approach, theidea that everyone is apart of what you aredoing. They own the thing

with you, and they want itto succeed as much as youdo. Now there are otherswho are interested inpromoting the productsthat we have got fromcassava, and to take thework forward we haveformed a coalition‘ABDEG’, the Agri–Business DevelopmentGroup. We have foundworking with differentindustries a very goodexperience as a result ofthe project. This is whatwe are looking towards inthe future, and we knowthat it will be full ofchallenges!

Farmer at Kokofu: Isac Antwi

Iam a farmer in Kokofucommunity. The cropsthat I grow are yam,

cassava and maize. Yamis the main crop, as food.It is the main staple foodhere, and there is no

farmer here who wouldnot grow yam. Everybodyalso grows cassava,because it laststhroughout the year. Mywife and I are farmers,and I have eight children.Labour is easily availablehere. Over the past years,I think that cassava was

not farmed in a seriousway. Now that we haveformed a group, I thinkthat we are more serious,as we have seen thatcassava can help. Withthe coming of the projectand more information, wehave discovered a way ofgetting more income.

Farmer at Kokofu: Mr James Okyere

Iam a farmer, and Igrow cassava andyam. I do not have a

good price for thecassava. With yam, theprice is better. I haveheard about the group,

but I have not joinedone. I think that if Ijoin, then I will havemore income. At themoment I have nosupport, and I amfinding my workdifficult. When I amalone, I cannot do verymuch, and I must have a

lot of help to get a littlefinancially. There isoften nowhere I can sellthe cassava, and I oftenend up having to get ridof it. From the farm, Ibring it to Kokofu townwhere people will buy itfrom other towns, butthey are not regular.

Farmer at Kokofu: Hannah Bochy

Iharvest cassava andyam as an intercrop,as I change the two

during the year. Thecassava has beenbeneficial to us. In thepast, we were justfarming and we did notknow where we wouldsell it. Now, we process

the cassava into theflour, and people willbuy it. This can help meto achieve more income.If I do the work to makecassava flour, then I canlook after my childrenbetter. I have sixchildren: two girls andfour boys. Through thisnew scheme, we havesupport. I have gotassurance that, by and

by through this work,we can see somebenefits in the future.Formerly with thekokonte, it would behere for a good sixmonths, and nobodywould come for it. Withthe cassava flour, it willbe transported and wereceive money.Although we wait, thereis no problem with this.

Farmer at Watro: Mr Martin Aduko

Iam an extensionworker. I work withtwenty-one

communities. I givetechnical advice tofarmers, and informthem of the processingmethod. I have alsocontacted thirteenother communities whoare not yet a part of theproject, but theirresponse is veryencouraging. There isone problem which isthat of equipment. I amin the process offinding more officialassistance to help withthis problem. The aimof the project is toinclude as manyfarmers as possible inthis process. We want tohave better markets forcassava. For some ofthe farmingcommunities, there isquite a distance fromthe community to thetown. How to get the

produce to themarketing centre isalways a problem, andthe road networks arenot good. I would saythat, through this work,we have been able tolink farmers to themarketing centreswhere farmers produce.The marketing agenciesnow come directly tothese areas to buy andpay for cassava. Most ofthe farmers are notwell-educated as to howto market theirproduce. They farm andharvest at the sametime, which brings alow market. If they do itin phases, and producein phases, then themarket will be muchbetter. Previously, themarket women couldsee that there was anexcess of cassavaproduce, and theywould dictate theprices. They would offera low price. A lot of thefarming communitieswithin the pilot areas,

even though they arenot yet a part of theproject, will bring theircassava to have itprocessed here. As anextension worker, I havebeen facing problems.When I go and speak tocommunities, I oftenface scepticism fromfarmers. This newmethod is quite tedious.To come all the wayhere and process thecassava means thatmost of your farmingduties at home will beleft. But with a littleeducation andconfidence, people haveseen that this methodcan make a difference.There is now a readymarket, but productioncosts are high. I thinkthat the attitudetowards cassava hasbeen drasticallychanged since the startof the project. Whenpeople are dedicated, asthey are becoming,these problems can beovercome.

Ministry of Food andAgriculture, Bhrong AhafoRegion: Mr Lawrence Kofi Krampa

The aim of theproject was toidentify regions

which had an excess ofcassava. Brong Ahafo isthe food basket of thecountry. There was excesscassava in store, and thefarmers were unable toget a market for it. Theprices were so lowbecause people were notbuying it. Production wasone-sided; only producingkokonte which is a majorfood group. Weintroduced alternative

markets for the cassava,so that it could be usedfor industrial use, as wellas for bakeries andconfectionary. We had tomake sure that farmerswere organised intogroups, and trained howto produce HQCF so thatthey could sell it. After aninitial survey, weintroduced the process tofarmers, and gave themthe objective of theproject. They decided tojoin it because they knewthat it would be a goodopportunity to markettheir cassava. Before theproject, there were co-operatives, but noneconcerning cassava

production specifically.Group formation was anearly stage of the process,as we had to choose pilotvillages. Watro was one ofthe pilot villages that wechose. We were trying toaddress the problem ofaccess to the market, sowe decided to use acollaborative approachinvolving the privatesector. By the inclusion ofthe private sector, wehave direct access to themarket. All that isproduced here is sent toAccra. There is a readymarket for the flour anytime that it is produced.Initially, people would notbuy the cassava.

Farmer at Watro: Mr Michael Boateng

Iam in control of thegrater and thepress. After the

women have done thepeeling, then I willremove the excesswater and grate thecassava. I have justjoined the project and Ihave been working inWatro community. Ialso harvest maize,ground nuts and othervegetables. There issome difference inmarketing with theseproducts. The cassavaflour provides aconstant price for me,because it is weighed.The others are not:sometimes when I getto the market with myother crops, then theprice will be different.It is the quality thatdetermines the price,as compared to othercrops; and it also hasmany uses. The otheruses that I know of are

for plywood and in thebakeries. Initially, wecould not find a placeto sell the cassava, andwe could not store it.We would often usethe surplus to rearanimals. Now we knowthat there are manyuses for it, I feel thatif we grow cassava,then we can sell it.Initially, many peoplestopped farmingcassava, because whatwe had to pay forlabour would not evencover the costs offarming it. Afterprocessing to flour, Ican get more income,and now we now havean interest in it. Idon’t think we willprocess it locally now,as we have no marketfor that. If things gowell, it is better tocontinue with thecassava. Initially, wedid not know aboutthis method ofprocessing, and we hadno machines.

Drying Cassava for processing

Processing Cassavo at Watro


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Director of Feed and FlourLimited: Mr David Pessey

We provide thedrying mats.The idea of the

covers for the dryingprocess we explored onanother project withpolythene sheets, butthey only lasted amaximum of two weeks.Any other material thatis clear enough to allowthe sun through is tooexpensive. Using thesemats allows us to addone or two drying matsat a time, which is amanageable cost. Wecan also involve thecommunity, bringingthem into theprocessing chain,creating jobs.Previously farmers

would not do thisactivity. They wouldgrow cassava and sell it.Now they are processingit into at least grits. Thefarmers have requestedthat milling takes placein the morning.Traditionally it happensin the evening. There isno problem with gettingup early hereit is asign of a good citizen.But millers need to beguaranteed a regularsupply before they willagree to work in themorning and in theafternoon. The problemis having a mill at thetimes when we requireit, and having presses sothat we have everythingout on the mats beforenine. In the past, wewould harvest, peel andgrate, then dry the cake

from the wet state andmill in the afternoon.But we have hadproblems with sellingthis, because the qualityis not good. Thecommunity have agreedto mill in the morning,and they have askedthat we provide themwith a mill. We are inthe process of doingthis. We are at thebeginning of arelationship. The firststep is the buying. Wecan move on from thatrelationship and seewhat we can do; but thisis how any relationshipbegins, by learning. Inthe light of what we aredoing, farmers arewondering how far wecan help them.Eventually, we will beable to do more.

Farmer at Watro: Mrs Victoria Jyambea

Ilive in Watro. I haveeight children,seven girls and only

one boy. I am a farmerand I also process. I wasborn and bred here.Initially, when I startedgrowing cassava, afterharvesting there was nomarket. There wasalways too muchkokonte at the market,and we could only useone method ofprocessing it thetraditional way, bysmoking it. Aftertaking it to the market,we often had to bring itback home again, andweevils would take overthe whole lot. Thebenefit that I have fromthe cassava flour is thatI have enough money topay for school fees, andalso to re-invest intothe next season’sfarming. I also use partof the money to caterfor the rest of thefamily. When I was nota member of theprocessing group, Icould not cater for mychildren’s school fees. Ialso had to take themout of school because Icould not buy schoolbooks. I can now boast

that my children areprogressing in school,and my children havethree square meals. Atthe age of twelve Istarted growingcassava, and we evenused to give excesscassava to the animals.Now we just need moreefficient equipment sothat I can process more,because I have seenthat the market hasbeen linked, and I havea ready market.Previously, we wouldfeel stressed because ofan inability to sell thecassava, and we werehard up. We now feelmore relieved that wewill be able to findmoney. We did doubt atfirst whether this wouldwork; but withencouragement we triedit and we have seenthat there is somebenefit in it. Wedoubted because thismethod is very tediouscompared to thetraditional method ofprocessing. But we sawbenefit, because thisway we have a readymarket. We have nowstarted advertising fornew farmers to join thecommunity. When thereare more of us, thework will be faster.

Farmer at Watro: Mrs Serwaa Yaa

Ifarm my cassava atWatro. I grow it allyear round. I also

grow ground nuts andyam. Initially, therewas not a good marketfor cassava. When Iharvested it, I had totake it to the market.If I did not sell it, thenI would have to bringit back to the house tostore it. It used to gorotten. Now, I can sendit to be processed, andI can get my product. Ican now sell it hererather thantransporting it, and Ican have a readymarket. I have twoacres of cassava field.

Farmer at Watro: Mrs Juliana Santawa

Iam a farmer. Ihave six children,four girls and two

boys. When I farm, Ifind it difficult to paymy labourers. In thepast, we used a localmethod of smokingthe cassava intokokonte. Or we wouldsell it fresh at themarket, and we wouldnot really get areasonable price for it.Initially, the cost ofcassava was meagre,and now it is better.Within thecommunity, I heardabout the processinggroup. In fact, mymother is a member. Iam not a member, andif I harvest my cassavaI will sell it to thegroup to process it, asI have no power toprocess it on my own.

Farmer at Watro: Mr Stephen Kabeaa

Iam a farmer in Watroand I have fourchildren. The help

which I get from theprocessing is that I havebeen able to send mychildren to school. Peoplecome and buy myproduct, the market is

available. Cassava flouris a ‘cash and carry’market. In the past,women would buycassava from us oncredit. We did not knowthem, and if they weredishonest, then we wouldnever see the moneyagain! I was handicapped,and I had no money onme. At least now I know

that I will get my money.We used to use the localmethod of cassavaproduction. This methodis much faster and morereliable. From about fouryears back until now, Ithink there has been animprovement in theprices that I am able toget. Other people oftencome to watch what we

do, but we have toexpand what we can dobefore we can recruitothers. What I think canbe improved is that wehave storage facilities.From where I harvest mycassava to thecommunity is a very longway. I think sometransport would be verybeneficial.

Atebubu Bakers’Association: Mrs Gladys Wilson

Iam a baker. We arenow using cassavaflour in our products,

and I can say that peopleare getting very excitedabout using cassava flour.I started using it becauseI was intrigued by usingsuch a local product inmy baking. People cometo ask me how they canuse it. We were givensome training, and inputsso that we could startusing it on our own.Gradually we improvedon it, and there are nowfifteen to twenty of ususing cassava flour in ourbaking. I have beentraining others to use theflour, and anyone who isinterested can comealong to us. Some of ourproducts are fifty percentcassava flour, and some

are one hundred percent.With the cassava flour,you have to put in moreingredients to makeproducts of a highstandard. If you want touse cassava, you put inmore ingredients, but youget your returns at theend because it is cheaper.Most people want to goback to the normal wayof baking. There is aready market for thisflour; we have beenoffered more of a market.In some towns, peoplehave never heard of thisbefore. They come to seeyou preparing it and theyget excited. I have alsobeen going outside tohold workshops, so thatpeople can know about it.At first, we were onlyworking in Atebubu. Nowwe work in other placesas well. If you can makebread and cakes out ofcassava, then it is a real

improvement for themarket place, becausebefore no one knewabout these things. Ourlocal school has shownan interest in my baking,so now I provide cakesand bread for them, aswell as the marketplaces. I think that, inthe future, the flourshould be producedmore, because it is muchcheaper. Going to thevillage to get the flour isa problem because oftransport. They are in agroup, and we collectfrom them. We are ableto get the amount thatwe want at the moment,although in the rainyseason it varies. Somepeople are afraid becausecassava has cyanide in it.But we assure them thatthe grating processremoves any harmfulmaterials in the endproduct.

Farmer from outside Kumasi: Mr Kweku Owusu

Iam a farmer, and I live near Kumasi. I processcassava in a traditional method by smoking it,and then we fill it into bags. Market women

come and dictate a price to me, and I have nopower to price it myself. When she gives me aprice, that is final and I cannot bargain. If werefuse, we know that no one else will come and wecannot store it. I come to Watro often, and that ishow I heard about the new process of producingcassava. Other people from my community havealso expressed interest, and we are waiting to hearmore so that we can get some machines. We havealready started forming a group.

Leader of WatroCommunity: Mr Joseph Obiri Yuboah

Iam a farmerproducing yam,ground nuts and

cassava. I have beenfarming for twenty yearsin Watro community.Yam is my main crop.We cannot use the yamsthrough the whole year.When yam is short, wehave cassava as abackup, which is why Iplant it. At first, I wouldsell fresh cassava forfufu, and dry forkokonte. There is a timewhen both of theseproducts will not sell.With the cassava flour,we can get a market forit all the time. I wouldleave my cassava in thefield for a spell of time,because I can’t waste mytime harvesting if Iknow that I will not sellit. Now we can store the

flour until a marketcomes. We can see thatnow we can use cassavaat any time, and it willnot go to waste. If youdry the cassava well,then we can even store itfor years. I even keep itin my bedroom! We treatit well so that it does notget destroyed. We weretaught how to store theflour by the researchproject. If we havecassava as our maincrop, then the future isgood, because it is doingmore things than theother crops that wehave. A seminar that wewent to showed us thatthis flour can be used forplywood, biscuits, andother things. With yams,it is only a small marketthat we have. Higherknowledge is beingshown with cassava, andif we put our mind to it,then the future will bebetter.

Child carrying cassava in Amanfro near Accro

Bakers’ Association at Atebubu


Road to Market

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32

Icontrol workers inthe field. Sometimeswhen you go to the

market, the cassava isabundant. When thereis more in the market,you just sell it. Whenwe introduced this newproduction method forcassava, farmers werehappier. Our priceshave been good, andalthough we have notbeen as regular as wehave to be with

payments, there areimprovements. Whenthe farmers haveprocessed the grits, weweigh it and transportit. But to get theproduce to the farm sothat it can be processedin the first place,requires input from thefarmers themselves-which is why they needmoney immediately,and cannot wait aroundfor payments.

Production Manager, Food and Flour Limited: Mr John Mensa

Igrow my own cassava.I have ten children. Iwas previously

harvesting cassava andprocessing into local foodproducts. I now producethe grits, and I think thatthis is better. There hasbeen a break, when wehave not been able toprocess, because themachine has broken. Butwe have been assuredthat it will be fixed, andso I see a brighter future

because the markets arebigger for this newproduct. The mode ofoperation in this way ofbusiness is attractive.Prices will not be sounstable for us. I am notsure of all the differentproducts that can bemade from cassava flour;but I have seen cakeswhich were bought to us,made from the flour. I amwilling to stay with thebusiness, because I think

that there are moreopportunities. I thinkthat the relationshipwith Feed and Flour is agood one. Sometimes,with traditional traders,the prices go way downand we know that we aretaken advantage of. Wethink that the businesstries to maintain a levelprice. We look forward tothe future support thatwe might be able to getfrom the business.

Farmer at Otareso Community in Accra: Mrs Eunice

Managing Director ofAmasa Agro-ProcessingCompany Limited: Mr Kwasi Oware

Amasa Agro-ProcessingCompany Ltd

deals with theprocessing of the freshcassava into variousend uses. We are amember of thecoalition of theSustainable Uptake ofCassava as anIndustrial Commodity.We were approached tomultiply improvedvarieties of cassava. Iwas convinced that thepotential for marketingcassava is not only inits production, but inprocessing as well. Idecided to set up thisfactory. We werevisited by the FoodResearch Institute, andthe Natural ResourcesInstitute, and madepart of the process.The situation now isfantastic. I normallywould not do anythingwithout research.When I read a researchreport by the FoodResearch Institute onthe utilisation ofcassava flour and otherthings, I was reallyhappy. My vision is thepromotion of a linkagefrom the farm, to thefactory, to the market.Where a link breaks,the whole edificationbreaks down. Our mainpreoccupation hasbeen to see to it thatwe sustain the farm-gate business, topromote the factorybusiness, and then topromote theconsumers. If we buycassava from the

farmers, we are puttingmoney into theirpockets, and we arereducing poverty.Attitudes towardscassava productionhave changedtremendously. We areshouting: “Cassavaproduction is next tococa!” Kokonte is astaple poor man’s foodmade from cassava.The saying is that ifyou eat kokonte, youmust face the wall.Through the research,we have come up witha product that isacceptable to themiddle-income group.No one will face thewall again. We aregoing to face thepeople! The sky is thelimit. We need peoplelike us to apply thisresearch for industrialuse. There areimprovements that weneed. Firstly, themethod of harvestingcassava must beimproved. It is labour-intensive and does notminimise cost.Secondly, the peelingprocess is anotherdrain on productioncosts. Thirdly,machines are neededto produce in largequantities.Transportation andworking capital alsoneed to be improved.We have contractsfrom primaryprocessors to producegrits for us to mill, butthere is atransportationproblem. We would gothere to collect thegrits. We are gratefulto the research groupsfor their tremendoussupport.

Quality Control ManagerofAmasa Agro-ProcessingCompany Limited, Accra:Production:Mr John Kofi Abure

Initially, we wereinterested in usingHQCF for

traditional foods. Themarket was saturated,because too manypeople were alreadyproducing traditionalproducts. In 2002, wejoined the project withthe idea of movingfrom traditionalproducts to moreindustrial products. Aspart of the project, wewere to identifymarkets that weintended to producefor. The job was toproduce to meet thedemands of themarket. We as a

private company arevery happy, becausenow a new market hasbeen found for us,where initially ourmarket size was notthat big. Our job is tosustain the market.This means deliveringon time, and deliveringthe quantitiesrequired. We needed towiden the scope of ourraw material base, andthat is where thesmall-scale farmergroups came intooperation. We neededto add value to the rawmaterial to sell to theend users. In order tosustain the markets,we looked for localsuppliers for the rawmaterials that weneed. We wanted toset up processing unitsat locations where

there is a lot ofcassava, to supply tothe end users. For allof these users, we havea different product.The new markets arehelping farmers toincrease theirproduction activities,because there is a needfor us to buy morecassava. We are able tolink up more buyers: ithas a ripple effect.Farmers were scepticalat first, because theywere not sure thatthey would have amarket for cassava ifthey started producingit. We had to showthem that we had amarket. They took itup because theyrealised that those whohad started growingwere selling theirproduce.

Peeling Cassava at Watro

Peeling Cassava for processing


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34

Farmer near Accra: Mr Dan Juma

Iam a farmer, and Igrow cassava. Ihave a community

of about twentypeople. The thing isthat two or three yearsago, we wereencouraged to growcassava by a newinitiative in the area.The first year was fine,but the second year wewere left with nowhere to sell. We didnot have any money topay for labourers towork on the farm. So,the first thing that wedid was to find AmasaAgro-ProcessingCompany who came tous, and encouraged usto sell the cassava tothem. They gave ussupport, and we werehappy to work withthe Managing Director,Mr Oware. Before, anytime that peoplepromised to bring us atractor, they would failus and the cassava wasstill in the field. Nowwe work together, and

there are bigimprovements. Whenwe are disappointed,we are made to feelweak. You can neverbe happy if you knowthat your crop is justwasting in the field. Iwondered what to dowith the cassava that Ihad before. Now, Iknow where I can takeit to be processed andsold. We decided thatif we work together,then we can work. Wehave already soldsome, and we havedecided that if theycan help, then I canproduce more. I am areal farmer, and I lovefarming, but if I amdisappointed, then Idon’t know where togo. If there is help,then I can producemore than forty acres.I produce plantain,and cassava. At first,we were planting withlow skill. When youhave help, you can doit more withhappiness. If you haveno money to pay yourlabourers, then they

will go away. I workvery hard, but we needsupport, and money toput inside the work.Before, we would wait,and that is a waste oftime. When somebodycomes to your farm, heis supposed to give youcash there and then.Not carry it away andtake it to anotherplace! That is thedifference. We failed toget money. I even mademy mind up that Iwould not work again,until we heard ofAmasa. Then I thoughtwe could try it. Nowwe earn more. We can’tworry because whenthe crop is in the land,it is a waste. We needto sell it when it isharvested. We nowgrow different types ofcassava for producinginto cassava flour. Iknow that you cannoteat this type, but Ihave divided my farminto three parts, and Ican do this because Ihave support. Youfarm to gain, not tolose.

Marketing Manager atAmasa Agro-ProcessingCompany Limited: Nathaniel Kove

We look formarkets forour produce,

and go and negotiate aprice for it. We come toan agreement, andwork out quantities. Wetalk to farmers aboutproduction methods,how they can get alarge quantity, and thedifferent varieties thatwe buy. The variety ofcassava that we suggestis Afisifi, which means‘anywhere’. Cassavaflour is now anindustrial commodity,so it has value. We haveto educate the farmers,so that they know allabout the production.

We have organisedabout sixty-eightfarmers into the GhanaRural Association ofCassava and SweetPotato Enterprise, ofwhich I am the PublicRelations Manager, andMr Oware is thePresident. We find iteasier to talk tofarmers here. Thefarmers normally findselling their producedifficult. We let themknow that we have aready market. I thinkthat this has been anew project altogether.We need to give a lot ofinformation, butattitudes are changing.People see wheat flouras the heavy-weightchampion! We have toshow that the cassavacan do equally well.

Farmer near Accra: William Aokai Yatey

Ifarm with myfather and brother.Together we have

a large farm of aboutseventy-six acres.After harvesting webring our cassava toAmasa Agro-Processing Companyto process it. Lastyear, we started tosupply to Amasa, andthey collect ourproduce for us. Theycome and buy it inbulk, and we get ourmoney in bulk. Beforewe started doing this,our produce was notweighed, and we didnot know what pricewe would get for it. Inour area, I organised acommunity to use thisnew method ofprocessing. My fatherheard about this newsystem, and hewanted to try it. Hesaid that we could nothave doubts about itbefore we had tried it.

Cassava Peeler at AmasaAgro-ProcessingCompany Limited: Mrs Sarah Adi

Iharvest the cassava,and get it ready tobe taken by trucks

to the factory. When itgets to the factory, Ipeel it. I also growcassava, and I sellsome varieties to thefactory, and others tothe market forconsumption. Themoney that I get fromthis work I use tosupport my family.

Farmer near Accra: Mr Ademond Ajecom

Ifarm thirty-fiveacres, and I startedfarming about

twenty years ago. Overthe past years, I havenoticed a dramaticchange. Initially whenwe used to growcassava, we did nothave buyers, and I feelnow as though I haveregular buyers. We wereselling to local markettraders, who wouldmake it into traditionalproducts. I amcomfortable with thesystem of pricing now,and I have regular

buyers. Before, the fewbuyers that we gotwould monopolise themarket, and priceswould be low. We have aclose relationship withAmasa Agro-ProcessingCompany; they tell uswhat they want and wegrow it. This is how weget our information,through talking.Motherwell farms andAmasa were in thebusiness of growing aparticular type ofcassava, and peoplewent there to buy it forprocessing. So we wentto Motherwell Farmsand Amasa for theplanting materials. We

knew that if Amasa wasgetting money for whatthey were doing, thenwe also would as wellfor that product. Overthe years, monetaryissues have beenresolved. I have a readymarket for my cassava,and I get my money. Itis a gradual process,but this starting pointhas been veryencouraging. Now morepeople want to go intoproduction, and theywant to meet. I havemobilised manycommunities to deliverthese raw materials. Ifeel that as anorganised force, we are

better conformed interms of puttingproposals forward, thanworking individually. Iam now working onforming one communityunder one umbrella.This is the future.When I was doing myown thing, it was tough.Now that I haveidentified a regularmarket, my family ismore comfortable, Ihave a regular source ofincome. Initially, I wasafraid that thingsmight not work out,and I would not be ableto sell. I am nowassured that it canwork.

We knew that if Amasa was getting money for what they were

doing, then we also would as well for that product.

Senior Production Managerat Western Veneer PlywoodProduction: Mr Mozu Frances

Our main concernwith HQCF isplywood

production. We havebeen using the cassavaflour as an extender inthe glue mix. We use theflour to improve theyield of the glue. In thepast, we have usedcassava flour for aboutten years now, but thequality was very poor.We stopped using it, andwent back to thetraditional extender,which is wheat flour.Last year wereintroduced cassavaflour. Initially we had aproblem with viscosity.As we got more samples,the viscosity improved.At first we used twentypercent HQCF, andeighty percent wheatflour. A major reason foropting to use HQCF wasthe cost, as it is much

cheaper than wheatflour. In order to reduceour costs, we made thesubstitution when theprice of wheat flour shotup. We are now able touse one hundred percentof the cassava flour,without any problems.We realised that wewere able to reduce ourcosts by forty percent.The location of Amasais a problem, but we arestill able to save thirtypercent, despite thetransport constraint.The flour is locallyproduced, which meansthat we are able to aidthe economy. In order tosustain the supply fromsmall scale-farmers,there is need for moreawareness of thebenefits of growingcassava. Once thecassava product arrivesin flour form, we storeit. Now, with the adventof the HQCF, we havebeen able to make onehundred percentsubstitution.

Cassava farmer near Accra

Western veneer plywood production

The community as a whole benefits from increased cassava production


Road to Market

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36

ContactsCPHP Regional Offices

CPHP East Africa

Dr Dan Kisauzi, Regional

Coordinator: Crop Post-Harvest

Programme,

Plot 209 Mawanda Road, Old Mulago

Hill, P.O.Box 22130, Kampala, Uganda.

Tel: +256 41 530696

Tel: +256 77708593

Tel: +256 77518554

Fax: +256 41 530696

Emails: [email protected] and

[email protected]

Website: Currently down whilst major

revision is carried out.

CPHP South Asia

Dr Shambu Prasad, Centre for

Research on Innovation and Science

Policy,

c/o ICRISAT, Patancheru, Andhra

Pradesh 502 324, India.

Tel: +91 40 3071 3522 / 3071 3615

Fax: +91 40 3071 3074 / 3071 3075

Email: s.prasad@cgiar

Websites:

http://www.cphpsouthasia.com/ and

http://www.innvosys.org/

Please address all project enquiries to

CPHP UK office.

CPHP Southern Africa

Ms Tafadzwa Marange, Regional


Programme,

151 Sam Nunjoma Street, Belgravia,

C/o Biotechnology Trust of

Zimbabwe, P.O. Box CY2855,

Causeway, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Tel: +263 4 722579

Fax: +263 4 722579

Cell: +263 11 403 434

E-mail: [email protected]



CPHP UK

Mr Tim Donaldson, Programme

Manager: Crop Post-Harvest

Programme,

Natural Resources International Ltd,

Park House, Bradbourne Lane,

Ditton, Aylesford, Kent, ME20 6SN,

UK.

Phone: +44-1732-878675

Fax: +44-1732-220497

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.cphp.uk.com

CPHP West Africa

Dr Ben Dadzie, Regional Coordinator:

Crop Post-Harvest Programme,

C/o Technoserve, Z75 Volta Street, PO

Box 135, Accra, Ghana.

Tel: 00 233 21 773873/75, 763675 (O)

Mobile: 00 233 27 553414

Fax: 00 233 21 772789


Website: http://www.cphp-wa.com/

Warehouse Inventory Credit Systems

in Zambia

Zambia Agricultural Commodity

Agency (ZACA), Zambia

Name: Mr. Martin Hamusiya

E-mail: [email protected]/

[email protected]

Tel: 00 260 1262 116/8

Fax: 00 260 1262 180

NRI, Chatham,

Maritime, UK

Name: Dr Gideon Onumah


[email protected]

Tel: 00 44 1634 883263

Fax: 00 44 01634 883 706

NRI, Chatham, Maritime, UK

Name: Jonathan Coulter


Tel: 00 44 1634 883070

Fax: 00 44 1634 883567

Improving Food Safety of Informally

Vended Foods in Ghana and Zambia

National Institute for Scientific and

Industrial Research (NISIR),

Zambia

Name: Dr Rodah Zulu


Tel: 00 260 128 2488

Fax: 00260 128 1084

Natural Resources Institute (NRI)

Chatham Maritime, UK

Name: Dr Andrew Graffham


Tel: 00 44 1634 883 239

Fax: 00 44 1634 883 567

The Sustainable Uptake of Cassava as

an Industrial Commodity





Tel: 00 44 1634 883 239

Fax: 00 44 1634 883 567

Food Research Institute (FRI), Ghana

Name: Dr Nanam Tay Dziedzoave

E-mail: [email protected] /

[email protected]

Tel: + 233 21 500470 / 777 330 / 761209

Fax: + 233 24 4795845

Project partners:

Warehouse Inventory Credit Systems in Zambia

Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich, UK

Zambia Agricultural Commodities Agency (ZACA), Zambia

Zambian Agribusiness Technical Assistance Centre (ZATAC)

IFAD’s Smallholder Enterprise and Marketing Programme (SHEMP)

US Department of Agriculture

Food Safety of Informally Vended Foods in Zambia

Central Board of Health (CBOH), Zambia

Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (MCTI), Zambia

Ministry of Health, Zambia

National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR), Zambia


World Health Organisation (WHO), Zambia

Zambia Provincial Health Office (PHO), Zambia

Note: Part of the research is carried out in Zimbabwe, led by the City Health

Department, Harare

The Sustainable Uptake of Cassava as an Industrial Commodity

Afrimart Global Enterprise, Ghana

Amasa Agro-Processing Company, Ghana

Dept of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

Feed and Flour Ghana Limited, Ghana

Food Research Institute (FRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial

Research, Ghana

Forestry Research Institute (FORIG) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial

Research, Ghana

Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana

National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), Ghana


Donors

Warehouse Inventory Credit Systems in Zambia: United Nations Common Fund

for Commodities (CFC); UK Department of International Development (DFID);

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); Dutch Ministry of

Foreign Affairs; US Agency for International Development (USAID); US

Department of Agriculture.

Improving Food Safety of Informally Vended Foods in Zambia: UK Department

of International Development (DFID).

The Sustainable Uptake of Cassava as an Industrial Commodity: UK

Department of International Development (DFID).

Food Research Institute


Road to Market

37

Road to Market

36

ContactsCPHP Regional Offices

CPHP East Africa

Dr Dan Kisauzi, Regional


Programme,

Plot 209 Mawanda Road, Old Mulago

Hill, P.O.Box 22130, Kampala, Uganda.

Tel: +256 41 530696

Tel: +256 77708593

Tel: +256 77518554

Fax: +256 41 530696

Emails: [email protected] and

[email protected]



CPHP South Asia

Dr Shambu Prasad, Centre for

Research on Innovation and Science

Policy,

c/o ICRISAT, Patancheru, Andhra

Pradesh 502 324, India.

Tel: +91 40 3071 3522 / 3071 3615

Fax: +91 40 3071 3074 / 3071 3075

Email: s.prasad@cgiar

Websites:

http://www.cphpsouthasia.com/ and

http://www.innvosys.org/

Please address all project enquiries to

CPHP UK office.

CPHP Southern Africa

Ms Tafadzwa Marange, Regional


Programme,

151 Sam Nunjoma Street, Belgravia,

C/o Biotechnology Trust of

Zimbabwe, P.O. Box CY2855,

Causeway, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Tel: +263 4 722579

Fax: +263 4 722579

Cell: +263 11 403 434




CPHP UK

Mr Tim Donaldson, Programme

Manager: Crop Post-Harvest

Programme,

Natural Resources International Ltd,

Park House, Bradbourne Lane,

Ditton, Aylesford, Kent, ME20 6SN,

UK.

Phone: +44-1732-878675

Fax: +44-1732-220497


Website: http://www.cphp.uk.com

CPHP West Africa

Dr Ben Dadzie, Regional Coordinator:

Crop Post-Harvest Programme,

C/o Technoserve, Z75 Volta Street, PO

Box 135, Accra, Ghana.

Tel: 00 233 21 773873/75, 763675 (O)

Mobile: 00 233 27 553414

Fax: 00 233 21 772789


Website: http://www.cphp-wa.com/

Warehouse Inventory Credit Systems

in Zambia

Zambia Agricultural Commodity

Agency (ZACA), Zambia

Name: Mr. Martin Hamusiya

E-mail: [email protected]/

[email protected]

Tel: 00 260 1262 116/8

Fax: 00 260 1262 180

NRI, Chatham,

Maritime, UK

Name: Dr Gideon Onumah


[email protected]

Tel: 00 44 1634 883263

Fax: 00 44 01634 883 706

NRI, Chatham, Maritime, UK

Name: Jonathan Coulter


Tel: 00 44 1634 883070

Fax: 00 44 1634 883567

Improving Food Safety of Informally

Vended Foods in Ghana and Zambia

National Institute for Scientific and

Industrial Research (NISIR),

Zambia

Name: Dr Rodah Zulu


Tel: 00 260 128 2488

Fax: 00260 128 1084





Tel: 00 44 1634 883 239

Fax: 00 44 1634 883 567

The Sustainable Uptake of Cassava as

an Industrial Commodity





Tel: 00 44 1634 883 239

Fax: 00 44 1634 883 567

Food Research Institute (FRI), Ghana

Name: Dr Nanam Tay Dziedzoave

E-mail: [email protected] /

[email protected]

Tel: + 233 21 500470 / 777 330 / 761209

Fax: + 233 24 4795845

Project partners:

Warehouse Inventory Credit Systems in Zambia


Zambia Agricultural Commodities Agency (ZACA), Zambia

Zambian Agribusiness Technical Assistance Centre (ZATAC)

IFAD’s Smallholder Enterprise and Marketing Programme (SHEMP)

US Department of Agriculture

Food Safety of Informally Vended Foods in Zambia

Central Board of Health (CBOH), Zambia

Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (MCTI), Zambia

Ministry of Health, Zambia

National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR), Zambia


World Health Organisation (WHO), Zambia

Zambia Provincial Health Office (PHO), Zambia

Note: Part of the research is carried out in Zimbabwe, led by the City Health

Department, Harare

The Sustainable Uptake of Cassava as an Industrial Commodity

Afrimart Global Enterprise, Ghana

Amasa Agro-Processing Company, Ghana

Dept of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

Feed and Flour Ghana Limited, Ghana

Food Research Institute (FRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial

Research, Ghana

Forestry Research Institute (FORIG) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial

Research, Ghana

Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana

National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), Ghana


Donors

Warehouse Inventory Credit Systems in Zambia: United Nations Common Fund

for Commodities (CFC); UK Department of International Development (DFID);

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); Dutch Ministry of

Foreign Affairs; US Agency for International Development (USAID); US

Department of Agriculture.

Improving Food Safety of Informally Vended Foods in Zambia: UK Department

of International Development (DFID).

The Sustainable Uptake of Cassava as an Industrial Commodity: UK

Department of International Development (DFID).

Food Research Institute


Road to Market

38

Acknowledgements

This publicationwas funded bythe Department

for InternationalDevelopment, throughits Crop Post-HarvestResearch Programme,managed by NRInternational Ltd. Theconcept originated fromDr Vino Graffham.Photographs weretaken by Dr John Esser,NR International Ltd.Design and printingwere by Dave Moxey atThe Clocked WorkAgency, UK.

Sincere thanks are dueto all members of theproject coalitions fortheir co-operation. Thispublication is basedupon their research andits outcomes. Withoutthe assistance of theNatural ResourcesInstitute (NRI), in theUK, the Food ResearchInstitute (FRI) inGhana, the ZambianAgriculturalCommodity Agency(ZACA) and theNational Institute forScientific and

Industrial Research(NISIR) in Zambia thispublication would nothave been possible. Aspecial thanks to theproject leaders whoorganized transport anditinerary arrangementsand in some casestranslated interviews:Dr Rodah Zulu, Mr Martin Hamusiyaand Dr Nanam TayDziedzoave.

For all the backgroundresearch, thanks aredue to all those who

provided contact namesand relevantinformation. Withouttheir time and patience,this work would havebeen impossible. Thankyou to Dr AndrewGraffham, Dr JonathanCoulter, Dr GideonOnumah and Dr JohnEsser.

Grateful thanks areowed to all those whohave expressed theirviews, for theirwillingness to answerquestions and their

time. I hope that I havetranscribed theirstories accurately, andin a way that illustratestheir commitmenttowards progressivechange. Last but notleast, a sincere thankyou to Ms Karen Wilkinand Mr Tim Donaldson(Programme Manager,CPHP) for all theirsupport, and to Mrs Christine Wheeler,Dr Vino Graffham andMs BenedikteSiderman-Wolter for alltheir advice.


market to road · i am taking this cassava from my farm to sell in the market. when i go to the...

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