Processor concerns in food insecure countries

Abstract: The Soybean Innovation Lab Managed Research Area for Human Nutrition (MRA5) is tasked with enabling inexpensive, nutritious, and safe soybean products to markets at scale in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Agro processors are a key lynch pin toward sustainable, resilient food security, transforming both farmer livelihoods and the availability of DINES criteria (desirable, inexpensive, nutritious, environmentally and culturally sustainable, and safe) foods in African markets at scale. SSA processors work in an environment with significant obstacles that include weak supporting infrastructure, limited access to capital, and constraints acquiring the adequate equipment needed to innovate. SIL surveyed SSA processors from 16 African countries in 2021 and 2023 to determine their characteristics, top challenges, opportunities, and needs. This presentation will review the results of the survey and comparisons to 2021 results, highlighting top challenges for SSA processors.

Sil, in partnership with AOCS and Cultivating New Frontiers in Africa (CNFA) support SSA processors in a one-to-one consultancy program with AOCS member experts, called Processor-to-Processor (P2P).