Beauty Secrets promotes sustainable livelihoods for 114 rural women through UNIDO cluster support
March 27, 2024Beauty Secrets promotes sustainable livelihoods for 114 rural women through UNIDO cluster support
March 27, 2024
Empowering Ashanti Mampong Cassava Value Chain Association to Boost Product Diversification and Market Opportunities
The Ashanti Mampong Cassava Value Chain Association (AMCVCA) has been working with UNIDO since 2021 to improve its product competitiveness in the domestic market, supplying to supermarkets, malls, and recently to Nigeria and the United States of America (USA).
Despite being able to supply Gari and cassava flour to some private schools, universities, households, and offices in the Ashanti region, the association faced several challenges.
The farmers in the association were facing low productivity due to low-yielding varieties on their farms. At the same time, the processors among them could not process to meet the right standards and be able to meet higher demands from customers because of the manual traditional ways of processing the raw materials.
To address these challenges, UNIDO provided technical support to the farmers, organizing various appropriate training and practical coaching in Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
The farmers gained new knowledge in climate-smart agricultural production through the intensity and consistency of the practical training.
UNIDO also provided the farmers with improved high-yielding cassava varieties from the CSIR - Crop Research Institute in Kumasi.
Some of the members of the AMCVCA at one of the demonstration farms set up by WACOMP to promote GAPS and IPM
To improve quality processes and sustain food safety measures, the processors were provided technical capacity building in Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), product diversification, and supported with processing equipment such as a grater, hammermill with cyclone, millers, crushers, and hydraulic pressers to reduce drudgery associated with cassava processing.
With the intervention, UNIDO helped to reduce production time from 2 hours to 15 minutes and supported the processors in registering products at the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to gain compliance and enhance product competitiveness in the domestic market.
- These products are now sold not only in informal markets but also in supermarkets and malls.
- The processors have supplied about 40 tonnes of gari and other products through intermediaries such as Tayoko and Selasi for export to Nigeria and the USA.
- The equipment provision, capacity building in business development and niche marketing have contributed to reduced cost of production from 64% to 45%.
- The profit of the cluster increased from 36% to 55%.
- The equipment provided by UNIDO in addition to the solar dryer system built as a common user facility for the Association increased the drying rate in quantities and quality.
- The income of farmers similarly increased by over 200% from 54,000.00 Ghana cedis to 120,000.00 Ghana cedis.
- Individual smallholder farmer's income increased 5 times from 10,000.00 Ghana cedis to 60,000.00 Ghana cedis.
- The percentage of female farmer ownership increased from 42% to 64%.
- New products such as fortified soy and cassava gari made with Margarine and fortified Coconut and cassava gari are now on both international and local markets.
Through the training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), the farmers' yield tripled from an average of 4.5 tons/hectare of cassava roots to between 10 to 14 tons/hectare of cassava roots.
“Our products have improved, and we have now been linked to buyers giving us additional income. It was difficult to pay the fees of my children and take care of them, but UNIDO empowered me economically as a woman to take care of my children,”
“I am a processor and have gained knowledge in proper pricing that has increased my profit margin. I have also learned how to produce cassava flour for the bakery and make other cassava-based products,” added Nana Kofi, who also expressed his appreciation for the support.
Another farmer and supplier, Madam Mary Adomako, shared how the training in GAPs made her farm flourish.
“Through the training in good agricultural practices and provision of inputs including improved cassava planting material, I have expanded my farms from 5 to 10 acres and become a key supplier of fresh cassava roots to the processors. My yield on the farm has also quadrupled."
With all the needed support to be collectively competitive, the association now processes cassava into various products such as cassava flour, Kokonte and starch, and various types of gari mix such as fortified gari, coconut gari, margarine gari, soybeans gari, Chips, Chin-chin, cookies, banku mix powder, and fufu flour.
Madam Christiana Akua Adjei, CEO of Christaa Agro Processing and a member of AMCVCA (R) explaining how one of the common user equipment for packaging works when a delegation of WACOMP Liberia CASTRAP visited some of the sites of the association in Asante Mampong
Some of the fortified gari products packaged for the market being inspected by a WACOMP Liberia CASTRAP Delegation led by UNIDO WACOMP Ghana team