Cassava processors undergo training
The Women In Agricultural Development (WIAD) unit of the Western Regional office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has scheduled a series of training programmes for a number of people engaged in cassava processing in the region.
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Already, about 150 selected gari and cassava dough processors, cassava machine operators and some agricultural officers have undergone training in the cassava value chain on food safety and environmental hygiene for almost three months.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries, mainly women from Shama, Wassa East, Ahanta West and Sekondi-Takoradi, were sent to the AGRICO Cassava Processing Plant at Afransi in the Gomoa East District in the Central Region for an exposure visit.
Mrs Beatrice Quarshie Brown, the Western Regional Officer of WIAD, in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Sekondi, said the main objective of the programme was to expose the beneficiaries to modern ways of cassava processing, especially the hygienic way of disposing of the liquid by-product during cassava processing.
She said it was also to enlighten the trainees on the consequences of producing food in a bad environment, which could lead to the outbreak of diseases.
Mrs Brown indicated that the cassava processors disposed the liquid by-product in an unhygienic manner, which produced offensive smell in the communities where they worked, while all manner of animals also went to feed around.
Lessons learnt
At Afransi, she said, the group learnt how to wash cassava thoroughly after peeling, keep the cassava dough in proper basins and not on the bare floor to ferment, collect the liquid by-product in a pit and not to allow it to spill around, as well as bag and seal processed gari.
She further indicated that the participants were taken through hygienic ways of packaging and labelling to attract market.
