In Northern Ghana, where an estimated four out of 10 children are malnourished, a low-cost, high-protein food source like soybean is in high demand. The high-quality protein delivered in one 8-ounce serving of soy milk can meet one-third to one-half of the protein requirements for school-aged children. Few have access to protein resources like meat, milk and eggs here. Fortunately the protein contained in soybeans is comparable to animal protein. However...
In Sub-Saharan Africa there is great need for an affordable, reliable threshing machine to harvest a new crop in Ghana, soybean. In Africa, soybean is a profitable cash crop, but smallholder farmers must increase soybean yield and improve mechanization to meet growing demand. Dr. Kerry Clark, a researcher with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research (Soybean Innovation Lab, SIL) and a University of Missouri soybean specialist, has seen first-hand the struggles smallholder farmers face...
Akolgo Samson Nyaaba, a blacksmith in the Upper East Region of Ghana, has a well-established fabrication business, making and selling donkey plows, donkey carts, chairs and tables for schools, and merry-go-rounds for the local community children. Now, thanks to a project by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research (Soybean Innovation Lab), Samson has developed a new set of skills that he can directly incorporate into his business...
In sub-Saharan Africa, soybeans are a profitable cash crop as well as a high-quality protein source. That is good news for operators striving to feed the growing poultry industry here and for the country’s soy oil processing facilities. Unfortunately, it’s bad news for many farmers whose soybean yields remain low, in fact, well below world averages, at the moment they could demand higher prices for the now in-demand crop. George Awuni, a post-doctoral research associate at Mississippi State University and manager of the SMART Farm, is working...
Gabriel Abdulai, a Soybean Innovation Lab research partner from Ghana and currently a Master’s student in Bioengineering at the University of Missouri, stands next to the three small scale threshers built by local blacksmiths during an eight-day training. In Sub-Saharan Africa, most smallholder soybean farmers pull dry mature plants up by hand and then hand-thresh them to separate the grain from the pods. The work is difficult and time consuming, the grain losses are high, and the resulting quality is poor. Smallholder farmers...