Louvain Coopération's food and economic security projects focus on working with farmers to develop farming methods that guarantee their families a varied and sufficient diet, or marketing opportunities, as needed. But how can agricultural produce, which is often highly perishable, be sold quickly or stored effectively? How can the value of products be increased?
Processing offers an answer to these essential questions. ‘As soon as we start to develop strategies for storing produce, we enter into a process of processing. This may involve building granaries for grain, processing fruit into jams and wines as in Peru, or, as in Madagascar, working on fumigation for fish preservation, which allows it to be marketed in the longer term,’ explains Vincent Henin, head of food and economic security programmes.
Social and technical structuring
The implementation of processing mechanisms involves two stages. The first is the social structuring of producer groups, which has two advantages: greater bargaining power and the creation of financial solidarity systems to enable investment in larger-scale technical innovations. The second stage is the actual improvement of processing systems. This can be technological (post-harvest treatment, dryers, etc.), intellectual (skills and knowledge), or economic (management, quality control).
Increasing value
Product processing generates value. In Benin, Louvain Coopération is working on cassava processing systems. In a country where cassava is sold everywhere, quality must be emphasised in order to increase sales, which is why we are working on group marketing and quality control. The challenge is the same in Togo: "In the case of rice in Togo, we suffer from a poor image: in restaurants, people prefer Asian rice because it is Asian, and because the rice from the region can sometimes break your teeth due to stones, because the product has been poorly prepared. ‘ So we have set up rice parboiling units: ’This has enabled groups of women to increase their economic opportunities. It is also a priority: to give opportunities to those on the margins of the system (women, young people)."