For Emmanuel Atsu, the CEO of Apisco's Best Gari And Energy Solution Centre in Ghana, nothing gives him more satisfaction than ensuring his community’s best delicacy is not only served but served well. The company specializes in gari production using improved stoves to make the environment green, and green the business.
Apisco’s Best Gari and Energy Solution Centre is a member of Adaklu Gari Processors Association, formed to ensure increased production and revenue for the members while protecting local forests by switching to improved cookstoves for its cassava.
Central Tongu is predominantly a farming community with women specializing in gari processing. In every household, women process gari five out of the seven days in a week; from Wednesday to Sunday. This is the community from where Emmanuel comes.
Gari is a grated, fermented and dehydrated cassava food product obtained in a dry crispy granular form. The specific activities carried out in each stage of the operation leaves the processor exposed to several occupational hazards. Gari production does not only affect the processor but also the environment, necessitating a green approach in order to reduce the associated hazards.
Emmanuel had been using the traditional method of gari processing until the SWITCH Africa Green programme through the project 'Improved institutional biomass cook stoves and ovens for small and medium-scale agro-processing industries in Ghana' came to his aid and installed modern institutional cook stoves. The project provided a chimney system which directs the smoke into the atmosphere and gives good and tasty quality to his products.
Improved stoves use less fuel wood, it has a chimney system that directs the smoke into the atmosphere. With three combustion chambers to absorb the heat, the improved stove makes sure no heat enters the body of the processors. The new stove Improves the appearance of the gari which attracts higher market prices unlike the traditional stove.
“This cost-based gari production and energy solution centre is into quality production of gari using improved stoves’” Says Emmanuel. “We have the traditional way that we process the gari using the traditional stove, but through the Association of Ghana Industries, with the help of SWITCH Africa Green and other partners, they brought an improved stove.“
Traditional gari processing involves the use of traditional stoves with a round pan fixed on it. To illustrate, the entrance of the stove is so wide that a lot of heat escapes during production which directly affects the processor; a phenomenon now responsible for giving women in the district major heat related diseases. The exposure to large volumes direct smoke and heat irritates the eyes and is also known to lead to lung infection as smoke is inhaled directly. Direct heat exposure on women is thought to sometimes cause miscarriage on pregnant women.
With children usually helping their parents, they too have become constant objects of this occupational hazard.
“Economic gains need to harness social and environmental benefits as transformative change will only be possible if countries invest in people, particularly women and the youth,” says Patrick Mwesigye, UNEP Africa Office Regional Coordinator on Resource Efficiency. “By focusing on human capital and human dignity, empowering a healthy, educated and skilled population, Africa will reap the greatest economic and social gains.”
The traditional stove uses a lot of wood fuel compelling the processor to cut down more trees which increases deforestation. Wood buyers also spend more money making the business less viable. These and many other reasons call for alternative ways to boost the gari business and increase the income levels of women which is already low.
“The intervention has increased my volume of production and consequently, I have employed 60 people from a low of ten people in the company,” says Emmanuel. “The programme has also helped me with capacity building and networking. I have been able to value-add and diversify my products and now have ginger gari, moringa gari and sweet potato gari.”
The enterprise, however, lacks equipment to upscale its production. Emmanuel needs a warehouse and machinery to be able to make maximum use of his times of plenty. During the rainy season, production can be high but without a warehouse, the products are sold at a cheap price whereas if stored to await the dry season, prices go up since few people are producing then.
By switching from the traditional cook stove to the improved cook stove, there has been an increase in the number of products processed. Before, a bag of gari took three working days but with the improved stove, a bag takes a day to process representing a 200% increase in production. This has increased income for the processors whose profit increased from GHc 141.00 (USD 24.4) per bag to GHc231.00 (USD 40).
“The improved stove has helped my business a lot,” Emmanuel adds. “It has helped me to save fuel, energy and it has helped me to increase my production level.”
There have also been fewer visits to doctors or heath facilities for treatment. Due to a reduction of dry wood consumption through improved efficiency and reduced cooking time, the environment has received a major boost in terms of conservation.
