Making Value Chains Work for Food and Nutrition Security of Vulnerable Populations in East Africa

The project goal is to improve the diets of vulnerable rural and urban consumers, focusing on women of reproductive age and children 6−59 months old in Kenya and Uganda, through increased consumption of more diverse, safe, and nutrient-dense foods. This will be achieved by via market-based solutions with improvements in food and nutrition security, income, and livelihoods for actors along the value chain from farm to fork. The project will facilitate a participatory process ensuring that new nutrition-sensitive tools, methods, and technologies generated by the project to analyze and upgrade target bean-based value chains in Kenya and Uganda are used by project partners of the national research and innovation system (also private sector) to improve the supply and price of target foods for vulnerable populations. The project, too, will work to link project interventions and plans to national strategies and implementation plans so as to influence development decision-makers and policy-shapers.

In previous collaboration supported by BMZ, ATS developed an innovative Inflatable Solar Dryer (ISD), together with an international consortium of CGIAR and private industry partners. Initial ISD testing in villages has created much interest among potential users and cost-benefit assessment conducted for those locations showed that the SBD can be economically feasible. Benefits for farmers are decreased physical losses, higher prices for their products from increased quality, and the elimination of weather risks, in which rain during open-air drying can lead to complete loss.  In this research project, ATS will work with the CIAT network PABRA in Africa to test the ISD in a “food basket” approach examining diverse crops present in bean-based production systems in Uganda and Kenya. The research will evaluate the use of ISD technology in the target countries with various capacities according to farmers’ and processors’ needs. Experiments will be conducted where the nutritional profile of crops dried in the ISD will be compared with those processed under traditional practices. We expect that nutritional and functional compounds will be better conserved by applying solar drying. Proteins, vitamins, and the respective anti-oxidants will be assessed, as well as the presence of contaminants, specifically mycotoxins. It is also expected that higher temperatures and better conditions realized in the ISD will lead to lower incidence of insect development, especially the problematic bean weevil. As outcomes, drying protocols will be proposed for the focus crops. Increased quality at reduced cost will initiate the commercialization of the technology in Kenya and Uganda through the CIAT/PABRA network and local partners. This outcome will aid the development of nutrient-dense, bean-based, ready-to-eat products, for which the required high-quality raw materials can be produced via ISD technology.