2002 : Community garden in Toubacouta (Senegal), a TC-Dialogue Project (Photo WVC)
Read at :
http://www.africanagricultureblog.com/2011/03/food-companies-share-know-how-in-africa.html
Food companies share know-how in Africa
by Ilan Brat
Food companies have long donated money and surplus food to fight hunger in Africa, but some of the biggest firms are now plowing people and money into a new strategy aimed at helping the continent feed itself.
General Mills Inc., Cargill Inc. and Dutch food-science company Royal DSM NV announced a nonprofit called Partners in Food Solutions to help global food makers share their technological and other expertise with food processing companies in African nations and, eventually, other developing countries.
The companies will volunteer their own people to advise small and midsize African food processors on how to fix manufacturing problems, develop products, improve packaging, extend shelf lives and find new markets.
The firms believe putting these African companies on a stronger economic footing will help the farmers who supply them and make food more plentiful on the continent.
“We’ve donated money and commodities” in the past, said F. Kerr Dow, Cargill vice president of global food technology. “This is knowledge transfer, and that makes you a lot more personally connected.”
Partners in Food Solutions already has begun working with 15 food processors on projects in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi expected to help about 60,000 farmers, General Mills executives said. Over the next five years, PFS hopes to have 10 big companies working with 200 processors and one million farmers in 14 African nations.
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