The women and their families have seen remarkable improvement in their lives after technical officers from FPDA in collaboration with the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) facilitated a food processing training using sweetpotato (kaukau) as an example.
The participants learned the various methods involved in creating products out of sweetpotato such as flour, cookies, jam, and techniques in preparation, packaging, labeling, branding and marketing.
Other related skills learned were on stock-feed formulation and animal husbandry and using plant and animal tissue to create organic compost to improve crop health.
The participants were grateful to the technical officers for creating SME opportunities for them in agriculture.
FPDA program manageress for sweetpotato, Debbie Kapal said grassroots empowerment is vital in community transformation which can eventually translate onto the national scale.
"Our leaders need to be proactive and innovative and find practical means that empower our people.
"They must put money to where the mouth is and that is to invest in agriculture which will motivate people to go into SME.
"That's where the strength of the people lie. People need a push with support in simple machinery using local knowledge where they can shift from subsistence to small scale commercial farming to address food security and achieve better nutrition and income earning opportunities.
"Forget about feeding others. We need to feed ourselves first before even thinking about feeding others or export for that matter.
"The way forward is to use local knowledge and resources and start small scale with native crops of commercial value and create a domestic market.
"Agencies like FPDA and NARI are important development partners that district and provincial authorities must look forward to collaborate with," Mrs. Kapal said.
Handouts on ingredients and recipes were distributed for the attendees convenience and reference afterwards.
Participant Susan Kombangil thanked the training facilitators.
She acknowledged Kapal for initially believing in the potential of grassroots mothers to participate meaningfully in sustaining the livelihoods of their families and engage in commercial sweetpotato production.
"Thank you Debbie and FPDA for creating an opportunity for us simple village mothers, fathers and youths.
"The skills you have imparted in us will stay with us forever.
"Thank you for never giving up on us. You had confidence in us and trusted us.
"We also appreciate the management of FPDA for giving prominence to sweetpotato program under the leadership of Debbie Kapal.
"We learned a lot. Sweet potato is our saviour which sustained us for generations.
"With this training, we'll go to the next level in downstream processing.
"We're excited and believe such continued partnerships and collaboration can pave the way for rural transformation.
This native crop is a blessing from God to us," Mrs. Kombangil said.
