ConvergeFood: training starts in Ngaoundéré

From the morning, the CTA-CAM team and the UNIDO Coordinator were in place to welcome participants. 25 participants are expected from cooperatives in the programme's four value chains: 6 for cassava, 7 for milk, 6 for eggs and 6 for rice. Cassava, milk and eggs are the priority value chains in the region, with hands-on GMP and GHP demonstrations.

Dr Leila Fotzo, a CTA-CAM Expert, walked participants through the training: three steps and four modules, with a simple common thread, "clean, dry, protected, traced". Each participant will leave with three commitments for their cooperative.

• Step 1, the basics: diagnostic, standards and hygiene
• Step 2, the value chains: eggs and milk, then cassava and rice
• Step 3, the market: packaging, traceability and market access

In the afternoon, Dr Sali Bourou, a CTA-CAM Expert, took over in front of the participants, in an interactive format built on questions and discussion with cooperative representatives.

Participants followed rice processing in the field: a visual check of grain quality with producers, then a visit to a rice hulling unit, from paddy to milled rice, covering the hygiene and quality points to control at each step, through to storage in bags.

Aurelien Emani, CTA-CAM Cassava Processing Expert, took participants to a multi-purpose basic food processing unit. There he ran a demonstration of cassava preparation, from soaking to grating, following good hygiene practices, before a stop at the sales outlet of a local flour SME.

The same day, the CTA-CAM team and the UNIDO Coordinator ran the hands-on sessions of the milk and egg workshops on a livestock farm: access and biosecurity rules at the entrance, raw material storage and feed preparation, storage of veterinary products, and staff protective clothing. Together with the cassava workshop, these sessions closed the day on October 14.

This morning, Georges Saka, UNIDO Coordinator and CTA-CAM partner, joined the CTA-CAM team and participants at the farmer field school. On the programme: soil preparation, then a field analysis in which groups observe the crops, record their findings on sheets and agree together on the actions to take.

Our view: the quality of a processed product starts in the field. By linking the good agricultural practices of the field school with the good hygiene and manufacturing practices covered in the classroom and at the processing units, the training covers the whole chain, from plot to finished product. This is the strength of the joint programme: the field school approach and the processing support provided by UNIDO and CTA-CAM complement each other on the ground.