Agriculture

Cassava & Gari Processing for Livelihoods

Cassava does not wait. Once it is lifted it begins to spoil, and a harvest that cannot be processed quickly becomes a harvest sold cheaply or lost.

AgricultureCompleted Savannah Region With Partners

The Challenge

The challenge

Cassava grows well in the Savannah Region and feeds households through difficult months. But the root deteriorates within days of harvest, which hands the timing to whoever is buying.

Processing it into gari solves the storage problem and creates something that can be sold all year. Done over open fires with borrowed equipment, though, it is exhausting and slow, the quality swings from batch to batch, and the work falls on women and young people who have the least access to better tools. Young people in particular saw no future in it, and looked south for work instead.

Women and youth roasting cassava into gari over open fires in a rural community

Our Response

What we did

We treated gari making as an enterprise rather than a chore, and trained groups of women and young people in the skills and standards that make it one.

Hands-on training in grating, pressing, fermentation and roasting for a consistent product
Access to improved processing equipment that cuts the time and physical toll of each batch
Food safety and hygiene practices, from handling to drying to storage
Packaging, pricing and basic business record-keeping
Group formation so young people and women could work, buy and sell together

The Difference

What changed

Processing turned a crop with a deadline into a product with a shelf life, and gave the people doing the work a reason to stay.

Income across the whole year

Gari can be stored and sold when prices are good, rather than dumped at harvest when everyone is selling at once.

Less waste from every harvest

Faster processing after lifting means less of the crop is lost to spoilage.

Work worth staying for

Young people gained a skill and a group to work within, making agribusiness at home a real alternative to migrating for work.

A product that meets a standard

Hygiene and quality practices opened up buyers who will not touch an inconsistent product.

Why It Matters

Why it matters

The gap between a good harvest and a good year is almost always what happens after the harvest. Skills, equipment and storage are what close it, and they stay in the community long after a project ends.

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