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Non-food Agricultural Products, Part II: Exploitation of apparent waste

© Paul Vincent Mroso

Waste for Nutrition, Health and Wealth

Achieving food security is not a simple task. Different strategies must be tried and tested. The goal, however, should be the attaining an affordable and an adequate food supply. This article will look at what could happen if the poor nations take a glance at the non-food agricultural products, like bananas, widely cultivated in Africa, with the leaves that are usually discarded swiftly and with no second thought of possible benefits. This paper asks people to to:

Spare a thought for what is about to be thrown away

Agricultural non-food products that are referred to as ‘waste’ may be as high as 98% of produce (banana for example) are in fact a potential source of raw materials for the production of economically valuable products (see part III). Waste is generated from a number of sources like crop production, livestock farming, domestic and industrial food processing, social and commercial human activities. To exploit ‘waste’, it is required to identify the product, the sources, cost, quality and quantity of supply, in relation to the demand of the resultant beneficial product. The demand may dictate the level of investment.

Current practices:

The trend in global trade indicates that income for farmers in the poorest parts of the world appears to be decreasing as prices of exports tumble. The search for alternatives to boost incomes may encourage the exploitation of non-food agricultural products that have long been considered as waste. In the developed industrial counties there are significant advances in the exploitation of industrial and agricultural waste primarily to reduce pollution with the realization that there are commercial gains. By exploiting waste, the poor farmers could boost their incomes from sources other than the current practice of selling their meagre food crops. The waste exploitation in poor farming communities is sustainable and beneficial. Costs involved in preparing and collecting waste materials to processing plants has been cited as hindrance to commercial exploitation in the richer countries due to competition, but in small poor communities however, with no competition from cheaper sources, processing waste will provide affordable articles that may have nutritional, health and wealth benefits.

Sharing intellectual wealth:

The knowledge on the conversion of waste to beneficial products is in low-level practice in the poor communities, but pressures of global markets and lack of advances in local technology have dictated more widespread waste exploitation. The local indigenous knowledge could be improved to produce economically beneficial products when there is an added external input of knowledge. The external input of knowledge could be in the form of government financial or technical assistance or relevant machinery from industrially advanced nations. Mechanical tools like hand presses, shredders, rollers and mixers could be part of such assistance. It would be ideal for finance to be provided to enable making such tools in the relevant local communities. Simple mechanical or hand-driven machinery that are not in current demand in the industrialized nations could make significant improvement in poor communities if provided.

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