ITDG 
Interdev Agroalimentaire  

Training for food processing in Sudan

	Type de fiche	Expériences/Etudes de cas
	Mise en œuvre	ITDG(Royaume Uni)
	
	Zone géographique	Afrique; Soudan; Eastern Sudan - Kassala
	Mots clés	FORMATION; TRANSFORMATION AGROALIMENTAIRE

	Echelle d’action	National
	Public(s) cible(s)	Small- and medium-scale food processors

Contexte
The Women and Food Processing Training Project in Eastern Sudan was carried out between 1993 and 1998 as part of IT-Sudan's Eastern Region Integrated Technology Programme. The appropriate environment for developing the project in this region included : an existing range of productive technolgies ; accessibility to local markets ; a relatively large number of poor and unemployed people who migrated into the area in the early 1990s.
The project aimed to improve the standards of living of poor and marginalized women through employment, improved income, food security and nutrition. Indirect beneficiaries were considered to be local communities by improved access to low cost safe food products.

Problématique / Objectifs
The project area, Kassala and Gedarif States, is a high potential area producing seasonal gluts of perishable agricultural products. It is located between Khartoum and the main harbour Port Sudan which gives the area good access to inputs and markets.
Women in the area were already using some food processing techniques and were able to increase their skills and learn new technologies

Description/Mise en oeuvre
Dehydration of fruit, vegetables and meat developed as the major part of the training programme since this method of processing proved to be highly suitable in prolonging shelf life for consumption during off season periods. The programme also successfully introduced training for the following areas and achieved a degree of project objectives :
  Production of jams from fruits and vegetables
  Production of natural juices from fresh and dry fruits.
  Milk processing.
Other areas of training which proved popular included artificially flavoured juices, hilomur, dried lentil soup, sweets, cookies and pasta, but the consistency  with the project objectives is less clear because of their dependency on non-local inputs. For example imported wheat flour, gelatine, colours and preservatives.

Résultats/Eléments chiffrés
26 courses were delivered between 1994 and 1998 with a total of 1120 participants (843 trained formally and 277 informally).
Average trainees per trainer for formal training is 14 and 4 for informal training.
57% of the evaluation sample processed food and tried storage for home consumption.
17% generated additional income.
57 trainees formed productive groups.
32 developed home-based businesses.
Reduction in household expenditure was recorded to be about 70% in some cases.

Enseignements
The main project purpose was defined as assisting women to establish successful food processing businesses and/or to improve domestic food security.
The primary means of doing this is to train other organisations to conduct small scale food processing courses. IT Sudan conducted a series of training of trainers' courses and supported those trainers to deliver courses to their target groups.

- Importance of needs assessment to define the type and level of training, to determine for example whether the training is to improve skills to develop small enterprise in agro-processing or to improve food security at household level. The evaluation indicated that participants from other organisations were not fully aware of their role as trainers and catalysts for the technologies.

-  It was discovered that beneficiaries have their own priorities, for example processing products which will give high returns and facilitate income generation, or those which they perceive will bring greater food security, or those where inputs and resources are readily available.

-  Developing food processing activities for both income generation and securing improved household nutrition may not always be entirely compatible with project objectives. For example, beneficiaries who chose to produce artificially flavoured juices rather than natural juices stated three reasons: quicker and easier processing methods, good availability of inputs (mainly sugar and chemical additives) and longer shelf life. They perceived it to be an easier product to produce and market compared to natural juice. Without access to information on hygiene, quality control and nutrition it is likely they will continue to prefer production of artificial juice. This could have two negative impacts: poorer nutritional status and increased reliance on imports. However, if their income generation opportunities are increased then their overall well being may be improved due to better economic circumstances e.g. increased ability to buy a range of food products for the household, and others goods and services such as healthcare and education. Further research would be required to see whether this is the case. There is insufficient evidence to conclude whether complete information (on, for example, nutrition) would change their decision on what to produce, and it is likely to depend on individual circumstances.

Auteur : Sue Azam Ali
Saisie le : 17/12/2001
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