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Peanut butter, cassava bread generating income for Region Nine villagers
Approximately four thousand nursery and primary students in 45 Region Nine villages receive peanut butter spread on cassava bread with a cup of fruit juice daily, through the Ministry of Education’s school feeding programme.
In 2009, the Ministry contracted a non-governmental organization, The Society for Sustainable Operational Strategies (SSOS), to expand its Pilot School Snack Project from 7 to 33 villages across the Region. (Seven cottage industries have been producing peanut butter in Region 9 since 2005.)
According to Jerry La Gra, SSOS Executive Officer, the organization was tasked by the Ministry to expand the snack program to the whole region in 2011. By June this year, the program was active in 45 villages, serving nearly 4,000 students. The cost of this programme is approximately $50M, nearly all of which remains in the region, paying farmers for raw materials and mainly women for processing and delivery services.
A lass enjoys her peanut butter, cassava bread and fruit juice snack.
This expansion in the school snack programme led to the cottage industries increasing their peanut butter production from 25,000 lbs in 2009 to 50,000 lbs in 2011. La Gra explained that a distribution system has been put in place and the finished product (creamy peanut butter) is placed in containers and sent to the School Snack Management Committees (SSMC) in each village.
Each SSMC purchases cassava bread and fruit from villagers to complete the snack. The snacks are then prepared by the village manager and delivered to the schools, where a teacher oversees distribution of the snacks.
In addition to increasing school attendance in the Region, this snack programme has increased the income of many households. The raw materials and manpower utilized during the production processes are from within the respective communities.
He noted that the total organization provides employment to over 150 persons. SSOS has nine members. Most of the employees comprise rural women who work in the cottage industries and the SSMCs.
The financial empowerment also reaches the wider community, as the organization purchases its raw materials from farmers.
Peanuts which are grown once a year are purchased and stored to ensure year-round production of peanut butter for the School Snack Programme, local markets, and the tourism sector.
One of SSOS’s goals, is to promote sustainable technology. This is manifested in the storage of the peanuts in rubberized and hermetically sealed plastic bags. The peanuts are dried and placed in the bags which prevent fungus and maintain quality. The bags are waterproof.
He noted that cassava bread is purchased from the women within the Region. If a village suffers from flooding and the cassava crops are damaged then the operations would be affected.
It was noted that fruits are also purchased from the villagers including children.
Outside of the snack programme, two of the cottage industries, Aranaputa and St. Ignatius are diversifying their markets. La Gra added that 50 percent of their products supply local markets, including tourists. Many persons like the peanut butter as it is organic.
Another goal of the body is social sustainability and this is being achieved through training of personnel to keep records and function as an organization. La Gra noted that this is a challenging aspect but strides are being made.
Cognizant of the challenges climate change poses for farming districts, SSOS is hoping to develop technologies that would allow farmers to move their farms closer to the village. This is possible with the utilization of solar panels to generate power to have pump transport water from a well to storage device attached to a drip irrigation system to irrigate farms.
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