SIL Launches Study to Evaluate the Acceptability and Feasibility of Locally-Developed

Soy-Based Weaning Foods The first 1000 days of a child’s life is a ‘critical window’

for nutrition. When infants begin to transition from breastfeeding to solid foods at 6 months, they require additional nutrients, including more protein, in order to reach their full physical and cognitive potential later in life. If these nutrition needs are not met, malnutrition can begin and inhibit a child’s development.

In places with high malnutrition rates and few sources of high-quality protein, soy-based complementary foods can help meet young children’s nutritional needs. Soy is a versatile source of high-quality protein because it can be added to local cuisines without affecting their taste.

To address malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) has developed a soy-based complementary food by combining soy and orange-fleshed sweet potato. Now SIL is setting out to assess if infants will eat it and if their caretakers will make it.

Flora Amagloh, Food Scientist at the Savanna Agricultural Institute (SARI) and Dr. Francis Kweku Amagloh, head of the Food Science and Technology Department at the University for Development Studies in Ghana, will lead the study, which will take place in four villages in Northern Ghana. Over 90 mothers and their infants will taste test the complementary food. Another 80 mother-infant pairs will test the feasibility of using this food by preparing it at home for two weeks.

SIL researchers will study the mothers’ and infants’ opinions of the food through questionnaires and focus groups. If deemed acceptable, this soy-based complementary food would play an important role in SIL’s broader mission of introducing more high-quality protein to regions vulnerable to malnutrition.

Dr. Juan Andrade, professor of global nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will assist with the research, providing his years of field work experience and expertise in the role of technology to address food and nutrition security in low-income countries.

To receive more information on the study or to get involved, contact soybeaninnovationlab@illinois.edu

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Gabriel Abdulai, agricultural engineer at the Savanna Agricultural Research

Institute (SARI), with the three small scale threshers built during the eight-day

training at the Tamale Implement Factory in Tamale, Ghana.

(Photo Credit: Kerry Clark)

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Soybean Innovation Lab

Flora Amagloh, Food Scientist at the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute

(SARI), distributes a soy enhanced dish to villagers during a training near the

town of Saboba in Northern Ghana.

(Photo Credit: Flora Amagloh)

Thresher Training Builds Entrepreneurship and Brings Needed Low-Cost Mechanization

Like many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana

lacks the availability and development of low-cost, locally-produced harvest technologies like crop threshers. Unfortunately, the threshers available in the market are imported machines which are too big and expensive to fit the needs of smallholder farmers.

Most smallholder farmers still pull dry mature plants by hand and then hand thresh to separate the grain from the pods. The work is difficult and time consuming, the grain losses are high and the resulting grain quality is poor. Dr. Kerry Clark, SIL researcher, recognized that low cost, small scale, locally produced threshers could provide a solution to harvest crops like soybean.

In August 2016, the Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) held an eight-day training to teach 12 local blacksmiths and workers at the Tamale Implement Factory how to fabricate small-scale crop threshers for use in Northern Ghana. The blacksmiths learned not only how to fabricate the threshers, but received business training, and constructed three working threshing machines which will be distributed to three villages in Northern Ghana.

Funding for the training was provided by the Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE) project and funding for the fabrication materials came from the Feed the Future Ghana Agriculture Technology Transfer (ATT) project.

Gabriel Abdulai, an agricultural engineer at the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), who designed and conducted the training is developing design books and a training module for organizations interested in creating similar workshops and is collaborating with SIL to build an international thresher design network.

For more information on the thresher training and fabrication or to setup a similar workshop contact soybeaninnovationlab@illinois.edu

Our Mission

The Feed the Future

Innovation Lab for

Soybean Value Chain

Research is USAID's only

comprehensive program

dedicated to soybean

technical knowledge and

innovation. Our

international team of

tropical soybean experts

provides direct support to

researchers, private sector

firms, non-governmental

organizations,

extensionists, agronomists,

technicians and farmer

associations tasked with

soybean development.

Contact Us

Dr. Peter Goldsmith

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pgoldsmi@illinois.edu

(217) 333-5131

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Blacksmiths from the Upper East region of Ghana built this bicycle

powered thresher designed by Gabriel, agricultural engineer at the

Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), during the eight-day

training at the Tamale Implement Factory in Tamale, Ghana. This

thresher will be distributed to a village in the Upper East region of

Ghana. (Photo Credit: Kerry Clark)

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September 2016

Soybean Innovation Lab Newsletter

Flora Amagloh Food Scientist at SARI, prepares vegetables with women

villagers for use in a soy enhanced dish near the town of Saboba in

Northern Ghana. (Photo Credit: Flora Amagloh)

http://soybeaninnovationlab.illinois.edu/

http://www.tropicalsoybean.com/

@tropicalsoylab

Community-scale soybean processing units known as SoyCows are capable of providing entrepreneurs with new market opportunities that support both economic growth and nutrition. SIL currently works with five soy dairy enterprises in Ghana and Mozambique which also participate in the soy dairy enterprise network. This network is the first of its kind, connecting SoyCow operations throughout Africa to enable entrepreneurs to share their gathered experience, business practices, training, and technological knowledge.

Researchers at SIL train the enterprise managers to recognize the importance of benchmarking their businesses, specifically addressing cost of production analyses, equipment utilization, economic performance, income generation, volume of product produced, and number of people served. Establishing a sound foundation for soy dairy entrepreneurs will, SIL hopes, spur more successful businesses, and in turn stimulate economic development, improved nutrition, and reduced poverty.

Soybean Innovation Lab’s Soy Dairy Enterprise Network

Winnua Ltd Company, Mocuba, Mozambique

Asa Tham co-owns and operates

Winnua Ltd, a soy dairy and corn milling company based in Mozambique. The company already has a successful maize flour brand and is looking to develop a similar presence in soy dairy in Mozambique.

Winnua Ltd’s soy milk and soy yogurt processing center started in spring 2015 and a few months later their production took off. Support from local bank BCI enables Winnua to deliver soy milk daily to 400 children at a school located near the soy dairy processing center. Only 0.5 liters of soy milk per day fulfills the protein requirements for small children and only costs 10MT ($0.33 USD). Winnua is working to expand their soy distribution from local schools to nearby hospitals. To learn more about Winnua visit their website http://www.winnua.com.

En Soy Milk, Food Research Institute (CSIR, FRI), Accra, Ghana

Dr. Mary Glover-Amengor is a food

research scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) Food Research Institute (FRI) where she manages the En Soy Milk soy dairy operation. Dr. Glover’s soy products recently received Ghanaian FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval, which certifies the high quality of the En Soy Milk products.

The FDA approval allows En Soy Milk to expand to new markets, generate new customer relationships and foster partnerships with area businesses. En Soy Milk produces on average 32 liters of soy milk per day which it sells locally to individual customers in Accra. In the coming months En Soy Milk will expand their distribution to local schools, restaurants and nearby hospitals.

Margaret Murray Cornelius is a new member of the Soybean Innovation Lab’s human nutrition research team. Margaret graduated from the University of Chicago in May 2016. Before attending the University of Chicago, she interned with the Soybean Innovation Lab during its first year and conducted a research project assessing the economic sustainability, output and longevity of SoyCow systems worldwide. Margaret will continue her work with the SoyCows by continuing to strengthen and expand the Soybean Innovation Lab’s soy dairy enterprise network, connecting SoyCow operations throughout Africa to enable entrepreneurs to share their gathered experience, business practices, training, and technological knowledge. Margaret will also collaborate with the Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) and the University of Development Studies (UDS) on an early childhood nutrition study focused on evaluating the acceptability and feasibility of soy-based complementary foods in Northern Ghana.

Margaret Murry Cornelius

(Photo Credit Margaret Cornelius)

Dominik Klauser is the Program Officer of Research and Development at the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. Dominik graduated from Basel University with a Master’s Degree in Plant Sciences and in 2013 completed a PhD in molecular plant-microbe interactions at the Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center. During his studies, he also worked on projects investigating the potential of renewable energy sources and in the technology transfer sector in the UK and Switzerland. In addition to his work at the Syngenta Foundation, he lectures on plant physiology at Basel University in Switzerland. Dominik is fluent in three languages; English, French and German. Through his work at the Syngenta Foundation, Dominik partners with the Soybean Innovation Lab to establish the region’s first Pan-African variety trial network, a critical step in providing third-party, transparent and objective information regarding the performance of commercially available soybean varieties in the tropics.

Meet the Soybean Innovation Lab Researchers and Partners

Dominik Klauser

(Photo Credit: Dominik Klauser)

The Soybean Innovation Lab brings together researchers globally to address the most challenging issues facing soybean production, adoption and utilization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Here we introduce the Soybean Innovation Lab’s researchers and partners who assist in developing the technical knowledge and innovation needed to successfully develop the soybean value chain in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Margaret Murry Cornelius

(Photo Credit Margaret Cornelius)

Dominik Klauser

(Photo Credit: Dominik Klauser)

To become a part of the soy dairy enterprise network or to learn more about it, contact soybeaninnovationlab@illinois.edu

Margaret Murry Cornelius

(Photo Credit Margaret Cornelius)

Here we showcase the ongoing growth of two soy dairy operations in the network.