SCLANSA-FVC Results

Strengthening Capacity of Local Actors in Nutriton-Sensitive Agrifood Value Chains in Zambia and Malawi

Only 18% of women achieved the threshold for consuming 5 or more out of 10 food groups and therefore, 79% of the women were more likely to have inadequate micronutrient intakes as they consumed fewer than 5 food groups.

Overall, 99% of women consumed starchy stable foods while 87% of women consumed dark leafy greens with only 28% consuming animal products.

Common Bean Value Chain Map

Through the project, product and process quality improvement mechanisms were applied to strengthen the capacity of value chain actors to produce optimum amounts of quality beans that would meet consumer preferences.

Testing the impact cooking had on the selected cultivars showed that the cooking of common beans significantly alters the mineral composition with macro-mineral degradation observed.

Similarly, cooking the Maine cultivar resulted in higher mineral losses which can be attributed to the leaching of minerals as cooking Kabulangeti and Maine cultivars require 200 and 180 minutes respectively, to achieve the pre-determined softness.

20 participants tasted and evaluated recipe 3- a juice made of oranges and dark leafy vegetable powder added as well as a small amount of sugar (about 1tbsp added to the juice of 20 oranges). Responses varied amongst participants but the majority ranked the juice highly (4 or 5) across all categories.

Eight infants tasted recipe 3 and results showed that all infants tried the juice and were all happy with it according to each of their caretakers. Each mother’s i.e., caretaker’s judgement of acceptability varied from neutral to very good.

By the end of the project one (1) solar tent fish dryer had been constructed for the Gumi Fish cooperative in Karonga. The structure had the capacity to process 1 tonne of fish per one drying cycle which usually takes a maximum of 1.5 days. This gave fish processors the opportunity to dry fish in an environment that was free from rain, dust and insects.

Based on the results , sundried usipa was the main highly and locally traded fish product (184 tons per month) within most markets in Chitipa District followed by paraboiled usipa (33.4 tons per month), smoked mcheni (10.2 tons per month) and smoked masuhunju (6.4 tons per month).

Estimated Magnitude of Fish Trade per Month in Target Areas in Chitipa, Malawi