By Clement Hadosaia
In spite of the distance and sometimes difficult situations, KGA’s wish to spread its services and reach out to its Planting Material Network (PMN) members in the remote part of Makira’s Weathercoast and throghout the country has continued.
On March 28th – 3rd April 2011 a workshop on food processing and Juice making skills was held at Woua village, Ravo ward, east Makira constituency. The training workshop was organised purposely for the Woua SSEC Women’s Fellowship Group with other participants coming from Waihaga and Bagarei villages. Participating in the workshop are 26 females and 4 males.
The workshop was co-facilitated by Mr Peter and Mrs Doreen Warito (Trainers) and KGA staff Mrs Ronstard Gapu – the Program Support Officer for Marketing & Value Adding.
Topics covered include basic food handling, micro-organisms and food preservation, preparation of processing areas, food preservation for extended seasons, product development (costings), the importance of profit in sustainability, basic marketing and practical sessions such as fry drying, pouching to preserve foods, etc.
During the training the participants had successfully produced banana chips, make jams and fruit juice using different receipes. As part of the training the participants also learn how to make the ecological Kiko cooking stove to help them reduce the burden of carrying loads of fire wood for their daily cooking needs.
At the end of the training, the participants are delighted about the opportunity to learn many different skills which will certainly help them improve their family livelihoods and income generation activities.
An awareness program was conducted in the night about the work of KGA, the importance of soil management, food security and other related issues affecting our environment. As a result, 20 people had been registered to become new members of KGA’s planting material network.
Some participants demonstrate their packaged banana chips
