Supporting resources required for small-scale processing

The resources and services required for successful exploitation of markets by small-scale processors include the following.

1. A suitable processing room with reliable services, including clean water and for some products, electricity and fuel supplies.
2. Access to raw materials, ingredients and packaging.
3. Sources of affordable equipment and local servicing skills.
4. Adequate transport, good road infrastructure and feeder roads.
5. Training, skill development and networking.
6. Access to technical backup for advice on topics such as quality assurance.
7. Good linkages with suppliers and sellers (described in more detail in Fellows, 2002).

Resources, facilities and services listed 1-6 are summarized in the following section.

Production facilities

The building

All food processing businesses should have a hygienic and easily cleaned building to prevent contamination of products. It should be on a fenced site to keep out animals, with short grass to trap airborne dust. The investment in construction or modification of a building should be appropriate to the size and expected profitability of the business. Within the building, foods should move between different stages in a process without the paths crossing, to reduce the risk of contaminating finished products by incoming often dirty, raw materials. There should be enough space for separate storage of ingredients, packaging materials and finished products.

Overhanging roofs keep a building cool and fibre-cement tiles provide greater insulation than iron sheets against heat from the sun. A panelled ceiling should be fitted, rather than exposed roof beams, which allow dust to accumulate and contaminate products. Beams are also paths for rodents and birds, creating contamination risks from hairs, feathers or excreta. It is important to ensure that there are no holes in the ceiling or roof, and no gaps where the roof joins the walls that would allow pests to enter. All internal walls should be plastered or rendered with concrete. They should have no cracks that could harbour dirt or insects. The lower parts of the walls are most likely to get dirty and they should either be tiled or painted with white gloss paint. Higher parts of walls can be painted with emulsion paint.

Natural daylight is the preferred lighting in processing rooms. The number and size of windows depends on how much money a processor wishes to invest, and the security risk in a particular area (windows are more expensive than walls, especially when security bars or grilles are needed). Storerooms do not need to have windows. All windows should be screened with mosquito mesh. Doors should not have gaps beneath them, which would allow pests to enter. If the doors are used regularly, thin metal chains or strips of plastic can be hung from door lintels, or mesh door screens can be fitted to deter insects and some animals.

Floors should be made of good quality concrete, without holes or cracks. The floor should be curved up to meet the wall to prevent dirt collecting in corners. Except in dry processes (e.g. milling or baking), the floor should slope to a drainage channel, fitted with metal gratings that are easily removed for cleaning. A wire mesh cover should be fitted over the drain opening to prevent rats and crawling insects from entering the room.

FIGURE 9 A well-constructed processing room. (Photo by the author)

Services

The availability of clean water, electricity, fuels, servicing and maintenance facilities and transport varies considerably in different countries and between regions of the same country. Water is essential in all food processing, either as an ingredient or for washing equipment. An adequate supply of safe water should be available from taps in the processing room. There is unlikely to be a mains water supply in many rural areas, and water from boreholes is the preferred choice. It is likely to be less contaminated with micro-organisms than river water, but it may contain sand. River water should only be used if no other source is available. To remove sand, two high level covered storage tanks should be installed, either in the roof-space or on pillars outside the building. While one tank is being used any sand in the other tank settles out. If necessary, water should be treated to remove micro-organisms by dosing it with bleach.

Good sanitation is essential to prevent contamination of products, and equipment should be thoroughly cleaned after each day's production. All wastes should be disposed of in a way that does not damage the local environment. Solid wastes should be removed from the building at regular intervals, and either buried or turned into animal feed or compost. In processes that produce large amounts of liquid wastes, these should be carefully disposed of to prevent local pollution of streams or lakes. A soakaway should be constructed that cannot contaminate drinking water supplies. Toilets should be separated from the processing area or be in a separate building. Workers should have hand-washing facilities with soap and clean towels, and they should receive training in hygiene and safe food handling.

Electric power is needed at larger scales of processing for some products. If mains electricity is not available, the main alternative is a diesel powered generator, although the cost may be prohibitive for many processors. Support agencies could also investigate the local potential of wind- or water-powered turbines. Photovoltaic cells may be useful for lighting, for small refrigerators or for topping up batteries, but they do not supply sufficient power to run most processing equipment. Where electric power is available, sockets should be located high enough on walls to prevent them getting wet when equipment is washed down. All plugs should have appropriate fuses for the power rating of the equipment, and the mains supply should have an earth leakage trip-switch. Where lighting is needed, florescent tubes use less electricity than light bulbs.

Fuels are required for processes that involve heating (boiling, drying, smoking, etc.) and these can be an important constraint in some areas. This is particularly the case where wood is the only available fuel and supplies are reduced because of deforestation. Gas does not contaminate products with smoke, it is easily controllable, has a high heat output, and cylinders are transportable for re-filling. Where gas cylinders are not available, a biogas generator can be constructed to provide fuel, if the use of manure does not detract from its use as fertilizer and if there are sufficient quantities to produce enough gas for processing. Solar heaters may also be useful to pre-heat water.

Transport is needed for incoming raw materials, ingredients and packaging, and for outgoing products. Most small-scale processors are able to hire a pickup truck when needed, but they have little control over the conditions during transport, which may cause damage to packages or contaminate foods (e.g. by transporting them with non-food materials, live animals or contaminating them with grease or oils). Feeder roads to villages are often in poor condition, and may only be open during part of the year. Delays caused by poor quality roads add to the cost of processing and cause damage to raw materials and packages (especially glass containers). The condition of roads is an important consideration when selecting a site for processing, if it is intended to supply markets other than the local village (Table 9).

Servicing and maintenance facilities

Most domestic equipment used for micro-scale processing can be maintained by careful use and regular cleaning. Specialist equipment such as presses, ovens, etc., should ideally be made by local workshops that can also maintain them, or there should be a supplier of spare parts in a local town. Local equipment manufacture may require the collaboration of food research institutes and university food technology departments to develop and test prototypes so that they meet the needs of both workshops and food processors. Where imported equipment is used, a supply of spare parts should be provided, and the business owner should be trained to correctly replace worn-out parts.

Training, skill development and networking

One approach to improved village processing is to upgrade traditional products to improve their quality or shelf life and hence increase sales in more distant markets. Another approach is to produce non-traditional foods from existing crops or animals. Both types of processing require support through training, advice and skill development. When successful this support can lift rural people out of poverty by increasing their skills, confidence, knowledge and resources, and by providing diversified opportunities for them to process and sell their products. However, in practice, the consequences of introducing food processing to a rural community may be difficult to predict. Although potential adverse effects of a new technology on rural producers can to some extent be predicted and avoided by careful studies before a project is implemented, there are a large number of factors, which affect the final outcome and determine who will benefit from technological changes. There is thus a need for sensitivity and understanding by planners and field workers of the social and cultural context in which the changes are introduced.

Adapted from: Azam-Ali, S., Judge, E., Fellows, P.J. and Battcock, M., 2003, Small Scale Food Processing - a directory of equipment and methods, 2nd Edition, IT Publications, London, UK.

Advisers and planners have a responsibility to carefully evaluate processing technologies to ensure that they are effective in meeting the needs of the individual communities that are being assisted. The evaluation criteria are complex and inter-related and may differ in different communities, but a summary of the main aspects is given in Table 11.

Food processing developments should build on existing skills, traditional knowledge and practices, and not cause abrupt changes to village life styles or cultures. It is important that the criteria in Table 11 are not simply used by advisers as a checklist, but should be used to assist their judgement of the needs and solutions required by each individual community. Care should also be taken to ensure that the activities can be accommodated within family routines, without excessively increasing the workload on individual family members, and most importantly that there is sufficient profit to make the venture worthwhile. Poor communities with few resources are vulnerable to risk and advisers should make every effort to minimize the risks inherent in new ventures by conducting careful feasibility studies.

Village scale processing can be done either by individual families or by cooperation from a number of families. If a cooperative approach is chosen, the residents of a village need to decide how they wish their community to develop, how they want to benefit from food processing, and how these developments should be managed within the community. As part of this process the benefits of joining forces with other communities, or national and international groups should also be explored. A selection of institutions and agencies that can offer advice and support is given in Annex A and sources of further information are given in Annex B.

Lack of education, rural isolation, and adverse social structures may each contribute to poorly developed production and selling skills in rural communities. The lack of direct contact with consumers means that villagers are often not aware of their changing quality requirements and, as a result, do not produce foods to the standards of hygiene or quality that are required. Training programmes that are held as part of a food processing development programme should include confidence-building techniques, financial management and marketing skills as well as the technical skills needed to produce high quality processed foods (Case study 14). The promotion of linkages between rural processors and buyers of their products is described in Fellows, 2002.