Nutrition, Income and Human Capacity

from

TM

TM

Subsistence Farming & Food, Rough

Statistics for Most African Nations

Half of people are chronically malnourished

Half of year famine:

wet/dry cycle becomes

feast/famine

Half of food imported, esp. by value: local

markets are huge

Half of farmer’s

production never

consumed

4 Halves of the Have-Nots

2

Conclusion: Most of a farmer’s production from wet season is lost: the lack of preservation technologies creates massive harvest losses.

Food Preservation

Food comes in a flood and washes through.

Reservoir’s mission is to build a dam and hold it back – in a reservoir –

for consumption later.

Mission

Why

• Increase food security, decrease hunger and malnutrition, and create opportunity for poor families…

How

• through a distribution network of franchised village shops that…

What

• provide training on food processing and preservation, sell related supplies, and facilitate finance…

Who

• to entrepreneurial women and families involved in agriculture.

4

Sustainable Solutions

Affordable

Locally appropriate

Self-sustaining

• Usually less than $300 (microfinance fit)

• Starter size for subsistence farm families

• Locally maintained and preference for locally made

• No complex technology or need for electricity

• Bring livelihood besides preserving food

• Have equipment locally sold and supported

Distribution Value Chain

6

• R&D and product development• Arranges manufacturing and distributes goods• Technical training on food technologies• Link to finance and finds product buyers

Reservoir

• Dealer of goods• Coordinator and eventual trainer on

technologies• Customer service and support

Franchise Stores

• Sells to contract buyer OR• Sells preserved foods locally OR• Consumes personally

Food Drying Micro Businesses

• Bulk sales to processors• Retail purchases managed

by othersConsumer

Prefer local contract for manufacturing of products

Partner with NGOs to connect to existing groups

Partner with food experts for improved processes

Scale to thousands of users per region

Expand to dozens of food products

Distribute needed packaging to end-users for direct retail

Connect users to guaranteed market for volume production

Dev

elop

men

t Tac

tics

7

Franchisees get plan to follow as

reps for a territory

Franchisees mediate local

culture and politics

Best practices shared so local

good ideas spread

Incentives are in place to increase sales in local area

Makes for a resilient org

structure

Lowers cost and puts opportunity

and ownership with local people

8

Scale and Culture: Franchising

Franchisee preferred: locally owned shops

with dynamic women leaders

Introducing Solar Food Dehydrators

Reservoir’s 1st Product

Solar-based food-drying is the oldest ‘processing’ technologyFranchising and NGO partnership to allow rapid scalingDrives value-add to rural poor (especially women)Benefits of drying include:

Ease of practiceStraightforward food safetyCulturally familiarProvides long-term storage with minimal packaging

New opportunities:Creates new products like tomato flourImproves nutrition andprovides livelihoods

About Food Drying

10

1. Hands on technology transfer for dryer operation 2. Food preservation techniques including use of sugar,

acid, and salt3. Hygiene 4. Food safety5. Sample recipes6. Machine manual7. Curriculum 8. Business and profit9. Microfinance loans10. Quality standards

Training

HUMAN CAPACITY BUILDING

Survey of Dryer Designs

12

Western Designs

NGO Designs Large Green House Style

Reservoir

Price $2,000-$8000 $500-$800 $10,000 and Up Under $300Drying Efficiency

Tomatoes in 1-2 days

Tomatoes in 5-7 days

Tomatoes in 2-5 days

Tomatoes in 1-2 days, even mostly cloudy days

Results High quality Tomatoes often rot

Risk of major loss if clouds or rain come

High quality

Return on Investment

High price means long time to ROI

Dryer throughput low so hard to reach ROI so subsidy required

Good ROI in sunny areas but problem in cloudy areas

Fast ROI (half year)

Affordable? No Usually not Rarely UsuallyManu-facturing

Specialty mfg & hard to ship

Locally made Assembled of imported parts

Locally made

Dehydrator Functional SpecsHigh solar gain design with absorptive and reflective surfacesInsulated top and bottom to hold heatVent doors allow for heat and air flow management Big temp shift from inside to outside airWorks on mostly cloudy days& from sunup to sundownCan reach near boiling temps on sunny daysPedestal stand allows turning by a single personMaintained in the village 13

Dehydrator Production ResultsTomatoes

are hardest but succeed

• Holds about 12 kilos (20 liters / 5 gallons uncut) of raw tomatoes

• Equals 3 tons of tomatoes input per year!

More production

possible

• Most foods dry in a few hours to 2 days• Holds more weight in heavy products like cassava,

which usually dries in half day• Second day drying can often be finished in bottom ¼

while starting a new batch in top ¾ of dryer

High quality preservation

• Heat inside drives bugs away and kills most germs• Drying food concentrates sugar and acid, creating a

poor environment for bacteria• No direct sunlight preserves essentially all

nutritional content14

Foods Able to be Dried

Potatoes Cassava Bananas Sweet Potatoes

Other Staples Tomatoes

Mangos Pineapples Papaya Pears Other Fruits Pumpkins

Carrots Onions Garlic Peppers Other Vegetables

Spinach & Leaves

Herbs & Spices Hibiscus Lemon

Grass Tea Leaves Ground Nuts Cocoa

Vanilla Meats and fish Avocados And much

more!15

ApplesToo!

Value-Add Assessment

Value In

• $1 (or free)• 10 Kilos • 1 Month Life Max

Drying Proces

s

• Lose 90% of Weight• 2 Days of Time

Value

Out

• $5• 1 Kilo• 1 Year Life

Dryer cost $300, finance at $20 for 18 monthsROI for dryer in 7 months

Tomato exampleProduce $40 per month in value add

…but hunger persists.

Food as far as the eye can see…

It’s time to get practical.

It’s time to address root causes with sustainable

solutions.

Thank You!

www.CheetahDevelopment.org

from

Nutrition, Income & Human Capacity