Chuch Haren, Plenty Soy Technician with years of experience in the field, provides this perspective on assisting communities to acquire soy growing and processing skills and on development work in general.
Plenty International is a non-profit development organization dedicated to supporting efforts of economically disenfranchised families and communities to provide for their own basic needs, promote local culture and protect their natural resources. |
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Plenty representatives work with women's organizations, farmers groups, cooperatives, indigenous communities, local non-profit organizations, government health and agriculture representatives, and small business owners that are seeking assistance to initiate or expand soybean production, processing, marketing and/or nutrition education programs. We think it is important to not only help people learn to process soybeans, but also to grow organic non-gmo soybeans for the purpose of ensuring local food security and expansion of local employment and markets.
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| Soybean Agriculture |
As many of you may know, helping interested families and communities learn new agriculture practices and adapt the growing of new crops requires consistent delivery of quality technical support, combined with timely provision of appropriate material and equipment inputs over several years.
If any of these three major components (technical service, materials and equipment) are missing or delayed, intended outcomes most likely will not be achieved.
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We have witnessed this happen several times while attempting to help farming families in the Caribbean, Central America, Asia's subcontinent, and Africa include production of soy beans within their cultural practices. We have also seen many families and communities succeed in adapting production of soy beans in rotation with rice, corn, root and/or vegetable crops, when required inputs were provided in a timely manner over a 5 to 10 year period.
There are several technical considerations to take into account when attempting to help economically disenfranchised families and communities initiate and sustain production of soy beans or any new crop. Technical assistance can not be done in isolation, that is one can not only provide information about how soybeans are grown. Families need to know how to include soybeans within an over-all agriculture improvement plan. They need assistance in: 1) addressing land degradation issues; 2) increasing crop yields; 3) learning to access and use labor saving tools and equipment; 4) lessening need for costly fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides; 5) understanding and addressing health related hazards of using chemical based inputs; 6) improving seed quality and storage capacity; 7) improving their ability to deliver products to market in a cost-effective manner; and 8) sustaining interest and participation of their sons and daughters in agriculture activities. Organizations and programs that provide staff and volunteers who can understand and work with families to address these technical considerations, are more likely to succeed in their efforts to help include a new food crop within traditional practices. The bottom line is that people you are working with will need to see, over an extended period of time, how including the growing of soybeans with other crops can help them: a) increase family income; b) improve food security; c) lessen pest and disease problems and dependency on chemical fertilizers; and d) improve financial returns for labor invested.
While implementing soy use programs Plenty representatives have found the following agriculture tools can be maintained locally and, when learned to use effectively, help farming families achieve increased financial return for their labor. Appropriate size roto-tillers or small tractors can help prepare land. Push-along wheel seeders and cultivators are needed to lessen time required for planting and field maintenance. And, depending on the local economy, appropriate sized gas-powered cutter-harvesters and/or plot threshers may be needed to achieve desired financial return for labor and to encourage youth continuing involvement in agriculture activities.
In Dominica and St. Vincent in the Caribbean, where Plenty was not able to provide all required equipment needed to make soybean seed production cost effective, farming families did not continue growing the soybeans. But in St. Lucia the Roots Farm Cooperative, having gained access to a thresher and large roto-tiller, continues to grow soybeans. In Belize, where Plenty representatives worked with grass roots organizations and government representatives to increase awareness of the benefits of growing and using soybeans for food, expanded production of soybeans, to replace those now imported, has become a priority pursued by the Ministry of Agriculture. In Nicaragua and Sri Lanka Plenty worked with NGO's, ones that were already promoting increased use of soy foods. Supporting these NGO's efforts to establish soy food processing and marketing small businesses has resulted in more farmers in these countries growing soybeans to meet increasing local demands.
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Soy Food Processing, Marketing and Nutrition Awareness |
Knowledge about the nutrition value of soy bean foods is expanding in the U. S. and throughout the world. Supporting community based efforts to improve access to high nutrient, low cost soybean foods can help address immediate nutrition, and long term food security and economic development needs. Most people that Plenty representatives have worked with in adapting use of soy foods to local cultures are members of women's led organizations, farming families and/or indigenous communities. They want to establish small food processing and marketing businesses, some to support community clinics, nutrition supplementation programs, or other important social services.
One of the most important characteristics of primary soy foods (milk, flour, tofu/cheese) is their ability to easily absorb flavors. These primary foods for the most part have a neutral taste, making it easier to season or flavor, and include them within traditional meals or recipes. In all of the countries we have worked it has been found that 90% or more of the people who have tasted foods, that included or were made exclusively from soybean products, found them to be highly acceptable.
While Plenty representatives provide soy food processing, recipe development and nutrition education workshops focused on home use, a very small percentage of families continue to make soy milk or tofu/cheese at home with any regularity. Why? In many cases family cooks, having to haul water and cooking fuel, wash clothes by hand, care for children and help tend gardens, prefer not to use their time to soak, grind by hand, cook, and separate the soy milk from the pulp. In contrast, a significant percentage of people that have learned about the nutrition and economic value of soy foods will, when easily accessible and affordable, purchase soy milk, tofu, soy flour and use them in recipes at home. We continue to provide home processing and nutrition education workshops because they are one of the most effective forums for helping families understand the versatility and economic and nutrition value of including soy foods within traditional meals.
When attempting to help grass roots organizations develop and sustain soy food processing and distribution services, careful consideration should be given to determining the volume of production and type of equipment that is appropriate for the needs of your partners. We make every effort possible to use locally available equipment and tools, even to the point of having semi-manual, stainless steel milk presses and tofu/cheese boxes fabricate in the host country. We have found that helping grass roots organizations to establish small to medium scale soy processing businesses is a very effective way to support community efforts to improve access to high nutrient, low cost foods, and at the same time address education and economic development needs of disenfranchised populations. In each of the countries where we have worked with local organizations to initiate soy food processing, marketing and nutrition education activities, the number of people including soy foods within family diets, and the number of people making and selling fresh soy foods is increasing at a significant rate.
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| Attitudes and Culture |
In addition to technical there are attitudinal and cultural considerations, that if understood and addressed, can help development staff and volunteers be successful in supporting family and community efforts to improve agriculture, food processing, nutrition education, marketing or other initiatives.
It is common, among people from the U.S. who go out to work with economically disenfranchised people, to not know or forget that they themselves are most likely learning and gaining equally or more from this experience than are those people who's local development efforts are being assisted. It took longer than I now think it should have for me to understand this, that my knowledge about history and geography, social, technical and management skills, understanding of micro and macro economic systems, ability to adapt to other styles of living, and other personal attributes were being enriched in a way that no other experience could provide.
One's success can also be affected by the degree to which you demonstrate respect for ongoing social and political relations between people who live in the communities where you work. For instance, it would not be recommended that, once settled to work in some rural community, you immediately start to date anyone that is attracted to and pursues you, or to express strong opinions about local politics. This can cause, among other things, disruption in the community and distrust directed towards yourself. We have found that staff and volunteers should: a) learn about people they will be working with; b) understand and let their counter-parts know that they appreciate the skills, knowledge and friendships they are gaining from the experience; and c) in local terms, live modestly while in the field. People who can do these things will have significantly greater success and enjoyment during their time spent with people from another culture.
A good friend from Dominica several years back let me know that it is important for we, who go support grass roots development initiatives in other countries, to remember that for us it is an experience, for them, it is their life.
Chuck Haren
Plenty Member
Email: ctci@earthlink.net
or chuck@plentyaustin.org
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