Workshop teaches women to give food longer life

A workshop has taught women in Morobe how to conserve and store starchy food for a long time to prevent wastage and promote sustainability.
The workshop discussed processing and storage techniques for food like sweet potatoes, bananas, taro, yams and cassava.
“Without a better understanding of food processing and food security, a lot of garden produce harvested would go to waste,” said Miriam Simin, of the National Agriculture Research Institute (Nari), in a statement. Nari organised the workshop.
“Changing weather patterns, too, can affect the harvesting cycle of food crops. A workshop on food processing and security last week discussed techniques which can help conserve and store starchy foods like sweet potato, banana, taro, yam and cassava,” the statement said.
There were 39 women in the workshop. They came from Hengambu, Yanta, Babuaf and Wagang villages in the Wafi-Golpu Project mining area.
Two of Nari’s post-harvest and processing team members, Simin and Bafinu Baine, took the participants through food preparation and processing techniques which allow the food to be stored for as long as the next harvest.
“We only know our way of cooking taro, banana and tapioca,” Wagang village women representative Carol Kau said.
“But this training has taught us other ways of preparing and preserving these foods. We’re happy to have received this training.” The mining company’s head of external relations, David Wissink, said the firm would continue to support women’s development programmes in the region.
“Without women, there can’t be a project. You are a valuable stakeholder to Wafi-Golpu Project because you are the backbone of the family.”
The Nari post-harvest and processing visit farmers throughout the country to provide training on food security. Part of the training is teaching communities to turn their sweet potato, cassava, banana, taro and yam into flour, which can then be used for baking cakes, bread and pastry products.