Partnerships Issue 10 - African Agricultural Technology Foundation

Project updates
Cassava Mechanisation and Agro-processing Project set for take-off
Smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) who produce more
than half of the world’s supply of
cassava are set to benefit from access
to improved cassava varieties and high
quality processing equipment with the
initiation of a new project known as
the Cassava Mechanisation and Agroprocessing
Project (CAMAP) being
implemented by AATF.
One of the constraints to cassava
production in the region is lack of
appropriate machinery for planting,
harvesting and processing, yet the
potential for increasing the productivity
of the crop is huge with over 300
possible cassava products.
The objective of the project is to ensure
food security and poverty reduction
by improving the mechanisation and
agro-processing of cassava along the
value chain by smallholder farmers
in SSA. Cassava production and
processing technologies will contribute
to sustainable improvements in market
access, food security, and enhance
incomes and livelihoods of farmers,
processors, and marketers in the cassava
sector. The project will work with
partners to develop competitive cassava
commodity chains for a reliable supply
of processed products for food and
non-food industrial use by upgrading
and expanding traditional planting,
harvesting and processing techniques
in selected countries in Africa.
The project is set to benefit more than 3.5
million smallholder farmers in Nigeria,
Ghana, Malawi, Zambia and Uganda. The
specific objectives of the project are to;
negotiate access and transfer of cassava
mechanisation and agro processing
technologies for use by smallholder
farmers; increase cassava production
through mechanisation across the entire
value chain and thus reduce post-harvest
losses and demands for intensive labour;
add value to the cassava industry through
value addition and creation of market
linkages by linking smallholder farmers
with agro processing centers; and build
capacity of local entrepreneurs to design
prototypes machines, manufacture,
maintain and repair the necessary
equipment for cassava planting, harvesting
and processing.
Over the last five years, AATF has been
exploring various possibilities towards
improving the viability of cassava
production through mechanisation
and agro-processing. AATF has engaged
with the various cassava processing
equipment manufacturers to work
directly with African entrepreneurs to
produce high quality cassava planting
and processing equipment.
“Manufacturers from Brazil, one of
the world’s leading cassava producers
have agreed to work with AATF to
give farmers access to high quality
cassava processing equipment” says
Mr George Marechera, the Business
Development Manager at AATF. “We
have also engaged with cassava farmers,
processors, government departments
and research organisations in Nigeria
and Zambia, the target pilot countries
A cassava farmer with her produce - the
CAMAP project is set to benefit more
than 3.5 million smallholder farmers in
five target countries of Nigeria, Zambia,
Uganda, Malawi and Kenya.
for the project, to understand the cassava
sector and also identify potential project
partners.”
The cassava equipment being targeted by
the project includes planters, cultivators,
boom sprayers, stem cutters, diggers,
washers and peelers, graters, driers and
among others. AATF will facilitate and
coordinate mechanization at farm level
and link farmers to service providers and
fabricators in the project n
For more information contact George
Marechera (g.marechera@aatf-africa.
org)
Compliance management training for
cowpea and rice projects held
A
training on confined field trials (CFT) compliance
management was held in Accra, Ghana, in July 2012, to
enhance the capacity of teams responsible for managing
the Maruca Resistant Cowpea and Nitrogen Efficient Water
Efficient Salt Tolerant (NEWEST) Rice projects CFTs in Ghana,
Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
The training, which also included the sharing of CFT compliance
management experiences from the Cowpea project in Nigeria
and Burkina Faso, was especially useful to the teams in Ghana,
who are preparing to install the first CFTs for the cowpea and
rice projects as soon as regulatory approval is given by the
country’s National Biosafety Committee. Nigeria and Burkina
Faso are in the process of conducting the fourth and second
Cowpea CFTs respectively n
Participants during the compliance training held in Accra in July
2012
For more information contact Francis Nang’ayo (f.nang’ayo@
aatf-africa.org)
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