Grinding machines save Lotumbe women hours of time
For Mama Patience (above) and thousands of microcredit social enterprise producers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the magic of cassava means new opportunities. By adopting improved planting, cultivation and processing techniques for her cassava crops, Mama Patience is making more money, creating better opportunities for her family, and finding a sustainable path to adapt to the wide-scale impacts of climate change.
The magic of cassava
Congolese community development worker Désiré SAFARI Kanyena (r) encourages Lotumbe’s “Microcredit Mamas” to continue experimenting with new farming techniques that may yield improved cassava crops.
In short, the magic of cassava means Mama Patience can build a brighter future. Not just for her family or her village of Lotumbe, but for generations to come.
As the world’s largest consumer of cassava, the people of DRC are heavily reliant on the crop. Cassava flour is used for baking bread and cakes, the leaves are consumed as a rich source of protein, calcium, vitamin A and vitamin C. The starchy root can be fermented, or processed for industrial use as a starch, alcohol or biofuel.
Cassava is also highly adaptable to changes in climate. Among the major food crops of Africa (including maize, sorghum, millet, beans, potatoes and bananas), cassava is the least sensitive to the climate conditions predicted by 2030. It’s drought resistant, can grow almost anywhere, and is not easily destroyed by heavy rains.
That’s why the women of Lotumbe, who live in the world’s second largest rainforest after the Amazon, asked for our help to buy some grinding machines. Instead of manually grinding the root, the women can now use machines donated by HandUp Congo to obtain cassava flour.
Improved efficiency
It used to take up to two weeks using the traditional processing technique to make flour. Now it takes around five days. And because the product is whiter, drier and more hygienic, it sells at a higher price. Using the old techniques, 100kg bags of cassava flour sold for about AUD 28. The new and improved product is now packaged in smaller 70kg bags that fetch AUD 49 per bag. This means that Mama Patience and her fellow producers make an average of AUD 40 cents more for each kilo of cassava.
With increased incomes, Lotumbe’s two “Microcredit Mamas” groups have been able to feed their families and send their children to school.
Would you like to give cooking with cassava flour a go? Cassava flour can be found in many ethnic food groceries and online. Made from the whole root of the cassava plant, cassava flour has a mild flavour and fine texture that is perfect for gluten free cooking and baking. Here are some cassava flour recipes: https://www.yummly.com/recipes/cassava-flour
by Lucy Hobgood-Brown
HandUp Congo www.handupcongo.org collaborates with the Disciples of Christ Community of Congo on a range of capacity building projects in the remote village of Lotumbe. This village of approximately 3000 people can only be reached on forest paths or by canoe. It is located 300 km from the capital of Equator Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.
