BY JOY OFASIA
KASTOM Gaden Association recently wrapped up a productive 3-day food processing training in Ugele village in Rendova, Western province with more than 60 women participating.
According to Kastom Gaden Association (KGA) on social media, this training aims to train targeted groups of women and individuals to enhance their knowledge of value-adding so they can sell their produce from the farm with different skills and techniques.
The training includes: Food handling and hygiene: Ensuring food safety is key. Local crop processing involved turning potatoes, bananas, taro, and cassava into delicious chips, Simple baking: Using coconut, pawpaw, and other local ingredients to create tasty treats, Pizza making with a twist: Local ingredients for a unique pizza experience and floral arrangements: The perfect touch for any occasion.
This valuable training, facilitated by Georgina under the FO4ACP project, empowers women to add value to their homegrown produce and opens doors to new income opportunities. Also, it targeted groups of women and individuals to enhance their knowledge of value-adding so they could sell their produce from the farm with different skills and techniques.
The training will help these women by making them able to sell their produce with different touches and skills they learned from the training. For example, instead of selling freshly harvested bananas, potatoes, cassava, and other crops, they can now produce chips from these crops. From these trainings, beneficiaries can also share their knowledge with others and have other market opportunities to sell their products. The training does not only cover food processing; it also captures food handling as well as simple baking using locally grown fruits and crops and flower arrangements.
Participants in these sessions involved 7 different zones in Ughele and Rendova Island in Western Province. We expect to have more food processing training in other provinces.
The training was organized by KGA through one of its projects, namely FO4ACP (Farmer Organization for Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific), and it is an effort addressed to enhance rural development from a global perspective and is funded by IFAD and the European Union.
