GRATITUDE (BO-21.04-001-011)

Cassava and yam are important food security crops for approximately 700 million people. Post-harvest losses are significant and come in three forms: (a) physical; (b) economic through discounting or processing into low value products and (c) from bio-wastes. This project aims to reduce these losses to enhance the role that these crops play in food and income security.

 

Post-harvest physical losses are exceptionally high (ca. 30% in cassava and 60% in yam) and occur throughout the food chain. Losses in economic value are also high (e.g. cassava prices discounted by up to 85% within a couple of days of harvest). Wastes come in various forms e.g. peeling losses can be 15-20%. Waste often has no economic value which can make processing a marginal business proposition.

The involvement of PRI-Wageningen is directed to utilize waste of cassava such as peels and cassava plant sticks (stalks).

 

The overall objective of this WP is to ensure that technologies developed by Gratitude concerning waste products and ways of reducing losses are commercially viable for key actors in the value chain for yam and cassava products. This will be achieved with the use of value chain analysis applied prior to interventions and subsequently during the process of testing the various loss reduction and waste management technologies. This project is directed to the utilisation of waste for the production of edible mushrooms and upgrading waste using fungi that makes cassava waste more digestible to ruminant animals, especially the African dwarf goat.