Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research

Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research

Final Report

Project Title: Improving Incomes and Nutrition Security Through Development and Commercialization of Consumer Preferred Processed Legume-based Products in Malawi and Zambia

Executive Summary

The project was designed to respond to the need for improved capacity of processors in each country to profitably develop and commercialize the value added nutritious legume-based processed food products and to fill the knowledge gaps.

The objective one component of the project aimed to evaluate consumer preferences & demand for legume based processed products & their attributes. The component incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methods to achieve results. Willingness to pay experiments were conducted on two pre-cooked bean products: dehydrated super bean and Read to Eat. Findings reduced short cooking time, aroma, natural beany taste, and superior nutrition content were the top four desired attributes by consumers. The project found that all consumers are willing to pay for pre-cooked bean products, but the consumers willing to pay equal or greater than selling market price were 75% in Malawi and 74% in Zambia for dehydrated pre-cooked bean while 69% were willing to pay equal or greater for Ready to Eat Don beans. Additionally, we found that due to lack of information on how consumers value convenience and nutritional quality, the precooked bean products are undervalued at their current market selling price.  The experimental auction study found that for Zambian consumers, providing such information increases the willing to pay by 16% for 180g dehydrated pre-cooked beans and 11% for 500g Ready to Eat beans. When the information on product convenience is combined with nutritional information of the beans processed, willingness to pay increases by 26% for dehydrated pre-cooked and 22% for Ready to Eat beans. A similar pattern was observed in Malawi; after sharing information on product economic saving increased the WTP by 22% and to a cumulative 34% when information on convenience and nutrition are combined.

Objective two of the study aimed at increasing access to knowledge on the consumer preferences and demand for value-added legume-based products. A total of 14 bean based products from both Zambia and Malawi, were analyzed for nutrients contents, sensory and microbial quality. The 14 products (flours and precooked beans) had considerable levels of proteins, fats and minerals, suggesting potential for complementary feeding. About 50% of flours on the market for both Malawi and Zambia are unsafe for human consumption. As a result of varying properties, processed products have the potential for improvement to compete both at national and regional  markets. Based on laboratory and RMAs findings of identified products, a further 12 bean based prototypes with potential for commercialization were developed and tested. These included bean flour blends, hydrated beans, bean paste, and Bean enriched thobwa. Also, the prototypes were subjected to laboratory and overall acceptability analysis. The acceptability findings revealed that all products had above average mean scores suggesting they have high probability for commercialization. Lastly, two products (bean flour blend and precooked beans) were identified as the most preferred thus optimized at the four processors. Perisha, Nouresic and Sun Fresh in Malawi and Trinity Super Foods in Zambia. The optimized findings revealed that porridges produced by bean flour blends were not significantly different (p = 0.2644) with soy-maize blend porridges. The blend with 10% Beans, 10% pigeon peas and 80% Maize was found to meet the minimum requirement of 13% proteins and it’s cost of production was not significantly different from that of the soy and maize blend. This suggest that the beans-based porridge blends had similar acceptability as soy-maize blend. Dehydrated or precooked beans were also optimized for precooking treatments (soaking and not soaking), batch volume, cooking time, drying time, packaging volume and materials, selling price and overall production costs. The study found out that soaked beans cooked faster than unsoaked beans but faded the color making them less attractive. Then again soaked beans dried faster than unsoaked beans but unfortunately lost more weight (10-25% depending on variety and soaking time). More color was lost during soaking than during cooking. The project further produced processing protocols for the two products were also developed stipulating: i) processing flow; processing conditions; food safety and quality; regulatory conformation; processing plant layout design; ingredient formulation and cost of production. In both countries, a policy review was conducted. The review revealed that available policies were promoting mainly production of maize, soybeans, and groundnuts, at the expense of other legumes like beans, pigeon peas and cow peas. Two policy briefs and two press releases with recommendations were developed and disseminated to influence policy changes in the two countries.

Project Partners

The grant holder and overseer of project implementation and coordination is the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA); a programme under the Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (The Alliance). Implementing partners are universities (i.e., Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources- LUANAR; University of Zambia- UNZA; and Virginia Tech- VT) and national research institutions (i.e., Malawi Department of Agriculture Research Services- DARS and Zambia Agriculture Research Institute- ZARI). Project Collaborators include the national bureau of standards institutions: Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) and Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZBS), as well as relevant government ministries and departments. Primary beneficiaries are the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) involved in legumes processing in Malawi and Zambia. More details are available in Table 1.

Project Goals and Objectives

The legume-based food processing sector is generally underdeveloped in Africa, including Malawi and Zambia. It is largely carried out by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) who have to overcome numerous bottlenecks, including lack of infrastructure and support for the production and commercialization of these products; inadequate investment in product development resulting in limited diversity; lack of market intelligence information in terms of demand, willingness to pay and preferences; and inadequate awareness about the processed bean-based products.

The “Improving incomes and nutrition security through development and commercialization of consumer preferred processed legume-based products in Malawi and Zambia” project was geared to address most bottlenecks pinpointed above. The research-based project took the market-oriented approach to provide market information on the demand of value-added legume-based products, strengthen linkages amongst stakeholders, test promising products and processing technologies, and catalyze commercialization. The project laid the ground for commercialization of legume-based processed products in Malawi and Zambia by improving understanding of demand for these products. Further, the multi-stakeholder nature of the project enabled engagement with critical stakeholders, such as the national bureau of standards, who played a key role in enhancing the capacity of processors in food safety, processing, and certification.

3.1 Project goal 

The overall goal of the project was twofold: 1) to catalyze value addition on nutritious legume foods through testing and optimization of processed products in preparation for commercialization and: (2) increased access to knowledge on the consumer preferences and demand for value-added legume-based products.

3.2 Project objectives 

Objective 01: Evaluating the existing and potential demand for legume-based nutritious products in Zambia and Malawi. Despite the interest demonstrated over the last decade by the private and public sector in value addition to legume through processing, there remains uncertainty about consumer demand for these products due to lack of information on consumers’ interest (i.e. attributes they value) and willingness to pay for locally produced processed legume-based products. This knowledge gap motived the need to rigorously analyse consumer preference and their willingness to pay for nutritious legume-based products. Three general questions were posed at the start: First, what are the consumer preferences and demand for legume-based processed food products?  Second, which of the hypothetical legume-based processed food products meet the consumer preferences for appearance, convenience, and taste? And third, what is the willingness to pay for different legume-based processed foods?

Objective 02: Test processed legume-based products and processing technologies with the public and private sector.

3.3 Expected outputs

1. Increased knowledge on the demand for value-added legume-based products.
2. Better understanding of the nutritional quality and acceptability of promising legume-based value-added products.
3. Processors skills enhanced in selecting better processing technologies and better product formulations.
4. Information shared with policy makers with recommendations of policies that support processing of legume products.
5. Capacity built for post-graduate students.
6. Knowledge for researchers and processors built.

Overview of Activities

The project was designed to respond to the need for improved capacity of processors in each country to profitably develop and commercialize the value added nutritious legume-based processed food products and to fill the knowledge gaps. The development of processed products that are preferred by consumers is a complex task, requiring a range of disciplines and exchange of knowledge among different stakeholders. The project therefore applied an integrated transdisciplinary mixed methods research design with two interlinked objectives outlined above. Equally important was stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation of the project activities and mainstreaming gender and nutrition in product development process.

The project was faced with delayed onset of activities implementation due to challenges with partners’ contracts and funds disbursement. The project was officially launched on 21 April 2022 at BICC in Lilongwe, Malawi. All intended partners such as universities (LUANAR, UNZA and Virginia Tech), Government Research Institutions (ZARI and DARS), Bureau of Standards (MBS), Alliance-PABRA representatives, private sector players, USAID missions and MSU Legume Systems Lab representatives attended the launch and developed common understanding of the overall project objectives, methods, partner roles, and expected outcomes, among other agendas.

Next is a brief description of activities conducted under each of the project objectives. 

4.1 Objective 01: Evaluating the existing and potential demand for legume-based nutritious products in Zambia and Malawi

The activities under objective 1 were focused on compiling and collecting information from secondary & primary sources, analyzing raw data, documenting and delivering evidence based information on challenges and opportunities faced by actors in the distribution chains of legume processed products, market preferences and demand for processed legume products to stakeholders.  At the conceptualization of research operationalization, the project carefully identified the stakeholders under this component as those who would influence and/or invest in legume processing industry as well as those who provide the market for processed legume products. These included the governments, donors, processors, and consumers.  Major Activities under this component of the project include collaborative research, capacity building, and result dissemination. During the project launch in April 2021, the research team held inception meetings with the stakeholders to prioritize the research sub-activities activities. A team of collaborators from the country based universities (LUANAR, UNZA), national Research Programs in each country (DAR, ZARI), USA based universities (VT, MSU), the Alliance-CIAT were involved in all stages of the research activities from research design, implementation, analysis, and writing to results dissemination.

The collaborative research activities implemented were geared towards generating information on topics that included: consumer preferences for legume-based processed food product and their attributes, willingness to pay and demand for bean-based processed food products, influencers of decision to purchase and consume legume-based processed food products, legume-based processed food products meet the consumer preferences for appearance; convenience; & taste, consumer beliefs and perceptions towards processed legume-based foods for nutrition; safety and cost saving, profile of consumers for legume-based processed food product and prevalence of purchase of legume-based processed food products. Other topics covered at the upstream end of the value chain were on: the type of legumes popularly used in processing, number and gender of processors, production capacities, product distribution outlets, challenges faced along the distribution chain and legume based processed food products existing n the market, their positive attributes and areas for improvement as evaluated by consumers.

The research design under this component incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methods to cover the above topics.  Qualitative methods such as rapid market assessment were implemented in major cities across the country and compiled information on t the locally produced and imported processed legume-based food products that existed on the market, processors & Importers, mapped the product distribution chains and challenges faced by actors along the distribution chains. Focus group discussions, justified by low numbers of on-spot consumers covered during rapid market assessment and the need to learn more from consumers, were held with a total of 175 consumers that were selected purposively to represent different income categories, employment opportunities, gender and locality (urban vs rural).  Implemented in Malawi only, focus group discussions were conducted in geographical areas selected from sites with and around three main cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, and Mzuzu, representing the southern, central, and northern regions, respectively. The inclusion of participants from both rural and urban areas across all regions of Malawi was to allow for a comprehensive analysis of consumer behaviors in the context of bean-based processed products in Malawi. The focus group discussions were also the entry point for exposing participants to three bean based product prototypes reformulated during the project and in a subsequent exercise interview each participant individually to gather data on their desired attributes based on self-explicated conjoint based method. Focus group discussions and subsequent self-explicated conjoint analysis provided insights into the context specific attributes that consumers valued the most; informing the selection of the two product prototypes (bean blended flour and dehydrated pre-cooked bean) that received highest overall liking from the participants based on consumer overall performance rating for the subsequent analysis under choice experiment and experimental auction methods respectively. In Zambia, where a 49 on-spot consumers were covered during rapid market assessment, two product (dehydrated pre-cooked super beans and Ready to Eat Don beans) were selected straight away based on the information compiled from activity and follow up market search.

Choice experiment and experimental auction were designed in consultations with processors and implemented between April and May 2023 in two rounds of survey conducted by a team of researchers drawn from participating partners and trained enumerators. Choice experiment in Malawi focused on legume blended maize flour and sought to provide insights on the portions of each legume into a mixture of ingredients (i.e. maize, soya bean, beans, & groundnut), texture and packaging materials are preferred by consumers and their willing to pay for each option given that ingredients attract different cost implications. In Zambia, choice experiment were designed for hypothetical dehydrated pre-cooked bean products with alternative taste (natural vs faloured) packaging materials (tin, plastic pouch & plastic) and colour).

The survey covered 792 bean consuming households in central and Northern regions of Malawi and 720 bean consuming households sampled based on multistage stratified proportional to size sampling. The experimental auction was designed to 1) determine consumers’ willingness to pay for two pre-cooked bean products a) dehydrated pre-cooked super beans and b) hydrated Ready to Eat beans; 2) identify the underlying drivers of consumer willingness to pay, 3) test the effect of information treatments meant to educate consumers on the economic and nutritional benefits of consuming the products on WTP, and 4) identify potential consumer segments for the products. The experimental auction followed the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism to elicit participants’ WTP and implemented at individual level in a group setting that was logistically convenient given time constraint.

The other activities under this project component supported capacity building of four students at LUANAR (1 male and 1 female) and UNZA (two females). The project provided on job learning opportunities via virtual meeting held after every two weeks for students to interact with senior researchers at Alliance-CIAT, LUANAR and VT. 

| The first product was the bean blended flour that was liked by 66% of the participant and the second product was the dehydrated pre-cooked bean prototype that was liked by 64% (Magreta et al.,2023)

A one-to one interactions meeting were also incorporated to mentor students on complex concepts, methods and presentation skills. In addition to academic training at universities and during technical research related sessions, the research team and scholars benefited from trainings on gender, supported by the project in each country. The dissemination have targeted development of communication materials and oral presentations to stakeholders.  At the time of project closure, detailed research technical research reports were developed, researchers and scholars had developed and delivered seven presentations to stakeholders fora such as global convening held in Livingstone in February 2023 and five presentations during the end of project workshop in Lusaka. Three MSc thesis are under way nearing completion at LUANAR (2) and UNZA (1).

4.2 Objective 02: To assess superiority value-added legume-based products and processing technologies with potential to increase nutrient density in products  

The market and consumer preferences data generated during Rapid Market Assessment (RMA) under Objective 1 were further analyzed to generate acceptable bean-based food products. Consumption study was also done to have an in-depth understanding of legume consumption in districts. The motivation was for processors and consumers to fully benefit through enhancement of incomes and contribution to nutrition improvement. This objective aimed at improving product quality and consumer acceptability, and to some extent improving knowledge on factors governing quality and shelf life of bean-based products.

Objective 02 — Activities included: 

2a. 01: Analyze nutritional quality, functional properties, shelf life and safety attributes of identified legume-based products in Malawi and Zambia. 

2a. 02: Optimize identified legume-based product formulations and recipes.

2a. 03: Develop protocols for industry to produce shelf stable legume products.

2b. 01: Conduct desktop review of existing national policies and bills relating to processing and commercialization of legumes to establish gaps and propose recommendations.

2b. 02: Develop in-country policy briefs.

2b. 03: Engage NARS and relevant project partners to disseminate findings.

The above activities were addressed by the following research questions; What are the nutritional properties of legume-based processed food products? Are there variations in nutritional quality and safety of similar products produced in both Malawi and Zambia? Ii) how well do these various products perform during processing? Are some products easier to process than others? Can legume-based flours processed using different techniques allow different ratios of beans/pigeon/cowpea for maximum nutritional and consumer acceptability? Are there variations in nutritional quality, safety and acceptability of precooked beans produced using different varieties? Is there any variation in nutritional composition, safety and sensory attributes of legume-based flours and their products dried using different methods? Are there specific attributes that drive consumer preference of the products that need to be optimized to increase consumer acceptability? What government policy options could support the processing and value addition industry for legumes?

Objective 02 — Study Design and Methods 

The research questions were examined in two broad research phases, which were further sub-divided into studies as explained below. 

2a. 01: Analyze nutritional quality, functional properties, shelf life and safety attributes of identified legume-based products in Malawi and Zambia. 

Samples collected during the rapid market assessment activity in Malawi and Zambia were subjected to analysis forseveral parameters. Parameters analyzed for included; nutritional content (protein, fats, carbohydrates, fibers and essential micronutrients); the functional properties (foaming, emulsion, water and oil holding capacities and pasting properties); textural properties; shelf life studies and microbiological safety (presence of indicator and pathogenic microorganisms, aflatoxins) of the raw and final products were assessed in laboratory at LUANAR.

Frequency of consumption of beans and bean-based products. Food consumption surveys were also carried out to have an in-depth understanding of consumption of target legumes (beans, cowpeas, and pigeon peas) in comparison with other legumes. This component generated crucial information that can be used to determine the level of incorporation of target legumes (beans, cowpeas, and pigeon peas) in the diets and inform on type of promotion strategies that can be employed to increase demand of these target legumes.

2a. 02: Optimize identified legume-based product formulations and recipes.

Optimized legume-based products. The most innovative products (dehydrated pre-cooked bean, bean-based blended flour) were identified for optimization at the LUANAR. The optimized products were developed following HACCP procedures. During the optimization, good manufacturing processes (GMPs) from handling of raw materials, receiving of raw materials, processing, packaging to labelling of the final product were adhered to. During this process, the country bureau of standards and private sector were engaged with an aim to ensure that the optimized products, meet quality standards of processed products to penetrate markets. Laboratory tests and sensory evaluations were also conducted on the optimized products.

Optimized legume-based processing technologies. Another innovation developed at LUANAR by Smith Nkhata along with the bean-based products is cabinet dehydrator (drier) that uses 100-watt bulbs to generate heat. The dehydrator is installed with funs to blow hot air through drying beans. This machine has been instrumental in the successful development and optimization of precooked dehydrated beans at Nouriceutic Foods in Lilongwe, Malawi. The rationale behind this innovation is to ensure drying of beans even during winter and rainy season is possible for continuous product processing. 

2a. 03: Develop protocols for industry to produce shelf stable legume products.

Processing protocols for the two categories of bean-based products: pre-cooked beans and bean flours were developed by the project. The developed protocols stipulated: i) processing flow; processing conditions; food safety and quality; regulatory conformation; processing plant layout design Layout or process-oriented plant design; ingredient formulation and cost of production. A presentation was made to stakeholders and final reports shared to stakeholders, including processors. The protocols were distributed to processors in both Malawi and Zambia. 

2b. 01: Conduct desktop review of existing national policies and bills relating to processing and commercialization of legumes to establish gaps and propose recommendations.

Policy gaps related to legume production, processing, value addition and commercialization were identified through qualitative review of policies in both Malawi and Zambia. As a result of the policy review activity, two policy briefs (one for Malawi and another for Zambia) and two press releases (one for Malawi and another for Zambia) were developed and reviewed by the project team. Policy briefs and press releases were submitted to the Feed the Future innovation Lab for Legumes Systems research at MSU, specifically to the communications focal person for further review and clearance with USAID missions in Malawi and Zambia.

Objective 02 had the following outputs; i) data on nutritional quality attributes of legume based products, ii) optimized legume-based product formulations and recipes, iii) protocols for production of shelf stable legume products, iii) policy recommendations and policy briefs developed and iv) research reports, MSc. theses and other publications.

Objective 02 – Outcomes. The outcomes include: i) better understanding of the nutritional quality and acceptability of promising legume-based value-added products; ii) processors skills enhanced in selecting better processing technologies and better product formulations, iii) information shared with policy makers with recommendations of policies that support processing of legume products, iv) capacity built for post-graduate students v) knowledge for researchers and processors built. 

Accomplishments

5.1 Objective 01: Evaluating the existing and potential demand for legume-based nutritious products in Zambia and Malawi

Through its objective 1 research, the project has contributed to closing the knowledge gap by: 1) increasing availability of evidence based information on processed products emerging on the market, their consumers, consumer interests, levels of satisfaction with the existing product and their willingness to pay for quality value added legume products and challenges  constraining the industry, 2): enhanced access to information by stakeholders via presentations, dialogue and collaborative efforts and 3) capacity building of country based researchers. 

Contributed evidence from RMA stimulated a review process to improve product certification protocols: The contributed information has already benefited government agencies such as regulators, processors, donors and consumers. For example, at the start of the project in 2021, lack of information on consumers when buying legume based processed food products from the market manifested in the way products were labelled; lacking on critical information that is important in influencing consumer buying decisions. This finding was shared with processors and the Bureau for standards, who immediately initiate a process to review and improve the certification protocols; in consideration of the new information critical for consumer demand.  

Contributing to new product development: The collaborative research generated information through rapid market assessment that was used as input in the reformulation of three prototypes of bean-based processed food products in Malawi. These products were further presented to consumers for evaluation under conjoint analysis and the feedback was shared with the processor for improving the products. By taking this approach, the project was also able to test in practical sense, the power of starting from the market in product development as the product was later evaluated in the second phase with consumers under the willingness to experiments. 

Identified new concepts for product development: Through choice experiment study conducted on hypothetical legume blended flour products in Malawi and dehydrated pre-cooked bean products in Zambia, the project identified new product concepts and recommended them to processors for consideration in each country. In Malawi, the project identified the most desired combination (70%maize, 10%common 15%bean soya bean and 5% g/nut) in flour making. For this combination, consumers are willing to pay twice as much as a combination with more common bean but without soya bean. In Zambia, the conversation with the processor of dehydrated super beans at the time of designing choice experiment revealed some two things: 1) through sensory evaluation, the processor had established that natural taste of bean is most preferred and 2) sometimes there fluctuation in taste off the natural taste which causes a loss to the processor.  These issues motivated selection of taste attribute (levels: natural taste as a base, tomato floured and chill flavor as alternatives) and added to others in the choice experiment design. Study findings confirmed high superiority of natural taste over chill flavor but not tomato. This means that in addition to natural taste dehydrated bean, the process has the opportunity to diversify the product by add tomato flavoured dehydrated pre-cooked on the to-do list. The processor can explore the possibility of using Tomato flavor as a solution to mask taste in product lots where natural taste is off the mark. The other beneficial finding from the study was that the type of packaging materials does not matter in both countries. For now, processors can use this advantage to cut on costs by choosing less costly packaging materials.

Reducing uncertainty about demand for legume-based processed products: At the time this project was starting in 2021, processors and government agencies were uncertain on whether there is sufficient market for processed legume-based food products in both countries.  This uncertainty is manifested in low and inconsistent supply of products on the market, lack of knowledge by consumers about where to find the products and low investment in advertisements.  Through the willingness to pay experiments, the project was able to generate and document evidence based information that reduces this uncertainty.  The project found that all consumers are willing to pay for pre-cooked bean products to save on time and cooking energy. However, the proportion of consumers willing to pay a premium price equal or greater than the current selling market price. At baseline the proportion willing to pay equal or greater than selling market price were 75% in Malawi and 74% in Zambia for dehydrated pre-cooked bean while 69% were willing to pay equal or greater for Ready to Eat Don beans. This is a sign that the market for the processed beans products that save on energy and time exists. For the processed pre-cooked bean products to penetrate this market, there will be need for promotional campaigns educating consumers on the time and economic savings of the products.  The study found that for Zambian consumers, providing such information increases the willing to pay by 16% for 180g dehydrated pre-cooked beans and 11% for 500g Ready to Eat beans. When the information on product convenience is combined with nutritional information of the beans processed, willingness to pay increases by 26% for dehydrated pre-cooked and 22% for Ready to Eat beans. A similar pattern was observed in Malawi; after sharing information on product economic saving increased the WTP by 22% and to a cumulative 34% when information on convenience and nutrition are combined. These findings suggest that due to lack of information on consumers’ preference for convenience and nutritional quality, the precooked bean products are undervalued at the current market selling price. Many consumers are likely to switch from unprocessed to processed precooked beans in order for them to make a saving on time and cooking energy if such information is provided to them. Therefore, we concluded that there is scope to increase the selling price and recover part of the marketing costs such as advertisement costs if consumers receive information on product benefits. 

The project has also contributed insights into potential nutritional related barriers among consumers to overcome in order to grow the demand for bean-based processed products. For example in Zambia,   a revealed preference study found that consumers with gluten sensitivity are less likely to purchase bean-based processed food products. This could be due to concerns about gluten content or cross-contamination, making bean-based processed products less appealing or suitable for this group of consumers. Therefore, as part of commercializing the bean-based processed food products, it is important to include any side effects of the products on the labels to reduce uncertainty about the health outcomes. 

Identified target market segments: In both countries, WTP was highest among middle income consumers, those living in urban (Zambia), central region (Malawi) as well as households that consume beans at least two or more times in a typical week.  Individuals who consume bean once or not at all in a typical week will need a discount of about 8% from the average price mark up. These constitute about 41% of bean consumers in the two regions studied in Malawi. Processors can use this information and compare the cost of product +marketing in urban and rural with the average WTP to set the consumer respective prices. Psychographic factors such as perceptions towards processed legume–based food products matters in the decision to purchase and how much to consume as evidenced in both the stated preference and revealed preference approached deployed in the project.  In stated preference, one unit increase in perception towards bean food for health from negative to positive was associated with 15.5% increase in the demand for 180g dehydrated pre-cooked bean and 14% for Ready to Eat bean in Zambia. Still in the same country, the project found that households with an employed head were more likely to have a positive attitude towards purchasing and consuming bean-based processed products. It's possible that employed individuals may prefer convenient and quick-to-prepare food options, aligning with the characteristics of such products. 

Capacity building of country based researchers. The project was implemented with a consortium of partners in both countries. Sixteen people between the age of 25 and 35 years were engaged in design and implementation of experimental auction. All these had not done any study using such method. Thus the project supported addition of this new research experience to their skill sets. Of these 16 people, 4 were MSc and PhD students, 6 participated as field supervisors (of which 2 were from university enrolled for PhD and 1 was a researcher at DAR) and experimental conductors while six were researchers at PhD and Msc level.   Researchers and students were involved in all stages of the research from conceptualization, design, implementation, analysis and report writing.  Five of these people are currently being mentored and guided as lead authors on drafting papers from choice experiment study, one paper from conjoint based data and one on decision to purchase processed legume based food products. The three Msc students were also supported for an Msc degree in economics at LUANAR and UNZA.  Because of the delays, these students are yet to complete but we learnt at the time of developing technical research reports that the students at LAUNAR are ahead of their colleagues in the same cohort in terms of progress in their Msc thesis development due to the constant support their received from the project teams. The Msc thesis at UNZA in Zambia is ready for examination. Further training was received in data management while in the field and post field data collection. 

A team of 12 enumerators and 4 supervisors were trained for 4 days at Mt. Makulu Central Research Station in Lusaka by three socioeconomics from ZARI and Alliance-CIAT. Similar training was conducted in Malawi, benefiting 12 enumerators and 4 supervisors.  For Zambia, another day of training was conducted by the staff from ZAMSTAT for 4 supervisors and 2 researchers on use of the maps.me application tools for locating Enumeration Areas during the survey. Overall, over 35 people benefited from capacity building tasks under the project. 

Information sharing and dissemination: Although the project was constrained with short time frame and most of the communication materials are still under development at the time of writing this end of project report, we plan to publish in open access journals, organize webinars and develop briefs accessible by stakeholders.  Moreover, throughout the project, stakeholders were constantly engaged through power point presentations and or informal consultative meetings to exchange knowledge in ensuring that the research conducted does not just serve academic purposes, but contribute directly to the needs of stakeholders. For example, in one of the informal conversations with the trinity super foods, we learnt that while natural taste was considered deal for consumers, it was still a challenge to achieve. The choice experiment tailored to finding short term remedies for the processor as the effort to perfect the natural taste level continue. From this study, the project generate evidence that tomato flavoured and natural taste are equally preferred by consumers. This suggest the processor can explore diversifying the product taste with tomato flavor, if this simplifies the product development, without compromising on the product market size. 

5.2 Objective 02: To assess superiority value-added legume-based products and processing technologies with potential to increase nutrient density in products

2a.01 Analyze nutritional quality, functional properties, shelf life and safety attributes of identified legume-based products in Malawi and Zambia.

During Rapid Market Assessment (RMA), bean-based products were obtained from 15 MSMEs in Malawi and 13 in Zambia. The samples were analyzed at LUANAR science laboratory. The bean-based products were mainly flour or flour blends and a few precooked wet and dry beans. Zambia has more advanced legume-based sector with more diversified bean-based products on the market than Malawi. The nutrient profiles varied depending on the materials and proportions from which the products were formulated. The flour blends are significant sources of macronutrients, such as protein, fats and carbohydrates and micronutrients especially zinc and iron (Table 4). Sensory evaluation studies of the products indicate that all bean samples had high sensory mean score (Table 5) suggesting good acceptability and the products were comparable to freshly cooked beans. 

Evidently, in Table 2, microbial load indicated that more than half of the samples were unacceptable because they had higher CFU/g (>250cfu/g). The higher CFU/g might have been contributed by poor processing technologies, lack of sanitation by processors and poor handling of the product during packaging and storage. 

Frequency of consumption of beans and bean-based products, and other legumes. 

It was observed that beans are mainly consumed after boiling (cooked) and not in other forms, for instance, more people do not consume precooked beans (99.9%) and bean samp or chipere (93.5%). Amongst the legumes, only groundnuts and soybean are consumed 5 to 6 times a week, as follows; 16.8% and 8.9%, respectively (Table 6). The implication is that there is less diversity in as far as consumption of legumes is concerned. Malnutrition is still a challenge in both Malawi and Zambia and consumption of legumes, such as common beans, cowpeas and pigeon peas would be helpful to fight protein deficiency and increase dietary diversification amongst the legumes’ food group. Lastly, there is need for heavy awareness creation and nutrition education to create and increase demand of target legumes and their products. The increase in demand is likely to affect supply by incentivising processors since they can likely make more money by selling their products.

2a. 02 Optimized identified legume-based product formulations and recipes

Besides the other findings from RMA exercise, it was also observed that very few MSMEs are processing food products from beans in both Malawi and Zambia. Lack of skills in processing beans, limited supply of beans and inadequate awareness about existence of bean-based products were indicated as reasons for not processing bean-based products. To change this narrative, findings from RMA, sample analyses and consumption surveys were used to inform modifications and reformulation of eleven bean-based food products prototypes at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). The eleven potential prototypes were grouped into four categories, as follows: i) three bean-based blended flour formulations; ii) two bean-enriched thobwa beverage formulations; iii) four different precooked dehydrated bean treatments; and iv) two bean paste formulations. 

Despite developing and evaluating several potential product prototypes, only two product categories were further optimized at four processing plants with the private sector players (processors). The first prototype was precooked dehydrated bean, which was optimized at Trinity Super Foods in Zambia and at Nouriceutic Foods in Malawi. The second type was bean-based blended flour, which was optimized at Perisha Agro and Packaging Enterprise in Malawi and Trinity Super Foods in Zambia. The selection of these products was mainly informed by the following characteristics: shelf stability, cost-effectiveness, nutrient density, and willingness by processors to adopt and commercialize them. 

Optimized bean-based food products in Malawi

Bean-based blended flour prototypes at Perisha in Malawi. 

Perisha Agro-processors were already producing and selling pure bean flour as an intermediate product (soup thickener), but they complained of the high cost of production, as well as penetration in the market. Therefore, the bean-based blended flour prototypes that were produced at LUANAR food processing lab were presented to Perisha for possible adoption and commercialization. However, due to Perisha’s aspirations and business strategy, the previous blends were re-modified to incorporate other nutritious crops, such as sorghum and biofortified crops like orange maize and OFSP. Rice was also added to enhance flavor of the blend. Sensory evaluation results revealed that there were no significant differences between samples at p = 0.2644 (Table 8) as determined by panelists. This suggests that the porridge made from bean-based blended flours had similar acceptability as the control (soybean and maize blend).

Nutritive values of bean-based blended flour at Perisha in Malawi. 

The nutritive value of the bean-based blended flours were analyzed and compared to control using Food Composition Tables (FCT) and verified by laboratory test. Generally, the FCT tables had higher readings than laboratory results, but were relatively similar (Table 12 and Table 13: Laboratory-based nutrition composition information of flour blend processed at Perisha in Malawi.). Using lab results, crude protein was slightly higher (16.88) in a blend containing 5% Beans: 15%Soy: 10%OFSP: 70%Maize compared to control containing 20%Soy: 80%Maize. Crude fat, beta-carotene, carbohydrates and energy were higher in the control than the other two treatments, while zinc was slightly higher in the two treatments than the control (Table 13).

Estimated production costs of bean-based blended flour at Perisha in Malawi. The production cost of each flour blend and their derivatives were calculated and is presented (Table 14). Included in the table are proposed prices respectively for each blended flour based on the 30% profit margin that the processor may be willing to make. When a blend has more cereals or legumes, the production cost tends to be higher. Reducing or replacing beans in the flour blends generally reduces the overall production cost, holding all other factors constant. Of all the common legumes, beans contain the least protein content, but it is the most expensive compared to soybean, cowpeas, and pigeon peas. The higher price of beans is due to its short supply on the market, which automatically drives the price up. To reduce the price of beans and entice MSMEs to process bean-based products or to entirely replace soybean with beans requires increased bean supply, which will lower the price. At the present, it is very difficult for beans to be the main legume ingredient in blended flours formulation despite the revelation that bean-based blended flours can be equally accepted.

Optimization of production cost for bean composite flours

This blend was chosen because of Perisha’s aspirations and business strategy to include OFSP, orange maize and rice. In addition, the blend had slightly higher gross margin than the other two blends (Table 14) and had slightly higher sensory score during sensory evaluations). Response Surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimise production cost of this blend. The calculation for the production cost (as Response) was calculated based on the price of the ingredients only and did not account for other costs, such as labor, transport and other processing parameters. The RSM was ran in Design Expert using central composite design to come up with 32 runs. The runs are presented in the Table 15 below. Run 9 minimizes production cost based on cost of ingredients to be included in the formulation of the flour blend.

Precooked dehydrated bean at Nouriceutic Foods in Malawi. 

Dehydrated beans is currently on the market in 500 g volume, which is either a bottle or a paper pack and sells MK2500/pack, courtesy of Nouriceutic Foods, which was started primarily to promote bean-based products in Malawi. Nouriceutic Foods is the only start-up company processing Dehydrated Instant Beans in Malawi, currently. The company has current production capacity of 1 ton per month which is expected to increase in the next years and the product is penetrating the market. All the dehydrated beans prototypes had above average mean scores (Figure 3) suggesting they have high probability for commercialization. 

The following parameters were optimized for dehydrated beans: precooking treatments (soaking and not soaking), batch volume, cooking time, drying time, packaging volume and materials, selling price and overall production costs.

1. Soaked beans cooked faster than unsoaked beans but faded the color making them less attractive. Unsoaked beans-maintained color and flavour but took longer to cook.
2. Soaked beans dried faster than unsoaked beans but unfortunately lost more weight (10-25% depending on variety and soaking time) when dry hence reduced final dry weight which might affect the profitability. The total soluble solids that leach into soaking water may partly explain the loss of dry weight. Unsoaked beans lost less weight (4-6%) when dry but took more time to dry thereby increasing production cost. There was more power consumption (combined cooking and drying) with unsoaked beans.
3. More color was lost during soaking than during cooking.

Production cost of dehydrated beans at Nouriceutic Foods in Malawi. The production cost of beans could be reduced with increase in batch volume and packaging in cheaper packages such as plastic papers. The bigger batch reduces cost because you tend to use same labour for more output. The plastic paper packages are very cheap compared to bottles or paper packs.

Dehydrated beans bring the much-needed convenience to utilization of beans as it saves time, energy and meal preparation costs for households. The bean retains the taste, flavor, color and nutrient of the beans and is suitable for all categories or ages of people. However, the price of beans are very expensive and not many SMEs would be willing to venture into processing and value addition of beans. Therefore, it is important to increase supply of beans in order to reduce the price of raw beans to attract SMEs into processing of beans into flour blends, precooked fresh beans and dehydrated beans.

Developed a Simple Cabinet Dehydrator in Malawi. Another innovation developed at LUANAR by Smith Nkhata along with the bean-based products is cabinet dehydrator (drier) that uses 100-watt bulbs to generate heat. The dehydrator is installed with funs to blow hot air through drying beans. This machine has been instrumental in the successful development and optimization of precooked dehydrated beans at Nouriceutic Foods in Lilongwe, Malawi. Nouriceutic Foods has three of these dehydrators. Each dehydrator has a drying capacity of 12-15kg of dry beans in 8-10 hours, which becomes about 24-30kg of wet precooked beans. As it stands, time taken to dry the precooked beans is still considered slow and optimization of this dehydrator so that it can dry beans within 2-5 hours is needed. The rationale behind this innovation is to ensure drying of beans even during winter and rainy season is possible for continuous product processing. Further optimization to improve efficiency of this innovation is needed. The dehydrator is multipurpose; can also be used to dry flour blends by MSMEs. Therefore, development of larger dehydrator will be important to make this a profitable business machine.

Optimized bean-based food products in Zambia

Bean-based blended flour prototypes in Zambia.

Optimization of bean-based flours in Zambia was done at Trinity Super Foods. The MSME has been producing bean-based blended flour for some time. However, the processors noted that the protein content of the bean-based blended flour is low compared to the UNICEF standard formula, which its main ingredient is soybean. Again, the processor complained of the higher production cost of bean-based blended. Therefore, the goal of the formulations in Zambia was to get the flour blend that is cheaper than the Corn-Soy Blend (CSB) but incorporating beans and or pigeon peas, but with comparable nutritive value to the standard UNICEF CSB. 

The bean-based blended flours were significantly different at p = 0.0029 (Table 18) from each other. This means the blend of 20% pigeon peas and 80% flour was least liked by the panelists. However, it was still above average mean score. 

Nutritive values of flour blends in Zambia. 

The nutritive value of some bean-based blended flours were analyzed and compared to control using Food Composition Tables (FCT) and verified by laboratory test. Observations from Table 19 indicates that the blend with 20% pigeon peas and 15% soy was comparable to the CSB with 20% soy and 80% maize. Similarly, the blend with 10% pigeon peas and 20% soy gave higher protein content the CSB. Therefore, these blends met the goal of the processor. However, replacing soy entirely with beans produced flour blend that was lower in protein than CSB. Unfortunately, when these blends were subjected to laboratory analyses, significantly lower protein content were obtained (Table 20) compared to the values obtained using FCT. These results need further verifications. It was observed that after doing different combinations that obtaining protein content (>14.5%) while making the flour blend less expensive was difficult to achieve using beans and pigeon peas to replace soy, as the processor demanded. This is so because both pigeon peas and beans have less protein content than soy. In addition, replacing soy with beans could not result into a cheaper product because beans are more expensive than soy in Zambia. Replacing soy entirely with beans not only reduced protein content but also increased production cost (Table 3). 

Production cost of flour blends in Zambia. 

The production costs for the bean-based blended flours in Zambia are presented in Table 3. The blend with the most protein content had a high cost of production at ZMK 3,398.5 per 100kg batch volume and did not have beans in it. The blend which had beans had a relatively low cost of production at ZMK 3,086 per 100kg batch and had a minimum required amount of protein at 13%. The protein content of this blend was increased by blending beans with pigeon peas and maize.

2a. 03 Protocols for industry to produce shelf stable legume products

Processing protocols for the two categories of bean-based products: pre-cooked beans and bean flours were developed by the project. The developed protocols stipulated: i) processing flow; processing conditions; food safety and quality; regulatory conformation; processing plant layout design Layout or process-oriented plant design; ingredient formulation and cost of production. A presentation was made to stakeholders and final reports shared to stakeholders, including processors. The protocols were distributed to processors in both Malawi and Zambia.   

2b. 01 Review of existing national policies and bills relating to processing and commercialization of legumes

Policy gaps related to legume production, processing, value addition and commercialization were identified. Available policies were promoting mainly production of maize, soybeans, and groundnuts. Common beans, pigeon peas and cow peas were not mentioned at all or were passively mentioned in policies for both countries. As a result of the policy review activity, two policy briefs (one for Malawi and another for Zambia) and two press releases (one for Malawi and another for Zambia) were developed and reviewed by the project team. Policy briefs and press releases were submitted to the Feed the Future innovation Lab for Legumes Systems research at MSU, specifically to the communications focal person for further review and clearance with USAID missions in Malawi and Zambia.

Some Policy Recommendations to Promote Processing of Legume-based Products in Malawi.

The potential to increase supply and subsequent processing and value addition of common bean, cowpeas and pigeon peas exist and these value chains can be promoted through:

• Increase investment in production to increase supply of these legumes. There should be deliberate effort my government to incentivize the production of these crops for export and value addition. Increased supply will pull down the prices and may attract MSMEs to process and add value because they will be competitive with other commonly used legumes. 
• There should be specific strategy document for promotion of high value legumes such as pigeon peas and cowpeas from production, processing, value addition and marketing. There is need to develop structured market.
• Training of MSMEs in processing and value addition of these legumes. MSMEs should extend their training to include processing of legumes.

Some Policy Recommendations to Promote Processing of Legume-based Products in Zambia.

• There is need to have commodity specific plans or strategies to deliberately widen scope of delivering on neglected commodities and sectors. For example, we observed that the Zambian government has embarked on crafting a Crop Diversification Strategy which will focus on different crops including the common beans.
• Increase investment in production to increase supply of legumes. There should be deliberate effort my government to incentivize the production of these crops for export. Increased supply will pull down the prices and may attract MSMEs to process and add value because they will be competitive with other commonly used legumes. 
• Special loan provision for agrofood sectors should be created. Zambia should place processing and value addition of agricultural produce a priority. Creating loans solely for this sector will attract many MSMEs to process and add value to many agricultural commodities including legumes.

Highlights of Addressing Cross Cutting Themes (HICD, Gender, Youth, Nutrition, Resilience)

The project thrived to mainstream issues of gender in its implementation circle. During its initial phase, the project developed a private sector partnership strategy targeting at addressing the needs of youth-led businesses with gender lenses. All private sector partners in the project are youth or have special focus to promote youth in their business strategy. Out of the seven private sector processors engaged throughout the project cycle, five have females as founders and co-founders and holding strategic positions in the firms’ organogram. 

The project was also centered on building capacity of youth through academic supervision, mentorship and coaching. Under objective 1 four socio-economics students were engaged; two MSc Ag Econ Students (Ms. Regina Kaseke and Mr. Dzeke Kendwani) from LUANAR; and one MSc and one PhD student (Ms. Maimbo Haboombe and Ms. Nandi Jama, respectively) from UNZA, Zambia. Similarly, the project also supported three MSc Human Nutrition students, namely Ms. Martha Chizule, Patrick Ndovie and Nellie Manda. The professors, as well as Alliance-PABRA staff have continuously supervised the students and guided them to develop their proposals, thesis, abstracts and presentations and scientifically guide them to align with the project needs. In such nature, the capacity of the youthful students have been enhanced tremendously. 

Realizing the gender gap among processors, The Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) facilitated two trainings in both Malawi and Zambia with topics: the gender mainstreaming in processing, good manufacturing practices (GMP), hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) and food safety. These training sessions also had an activity to disseminate RMA findings, on 18th October 2022 in Lilongwe, Malawi and on 20th October 2022 in Lusaka, Zambia. This activity was a direct response to immediately begin addressing some critical gaps observed during the countrywide Rapid Market Assessment (RMA) surveys conducted in July to August 2022 in Malawi and August to September 2022 in Zambia. Amongst the gaps observed during these surveys were the disproportionate representation of and disparities in issues of gender, as well as standards problems that most MSMEs face that lead to them having tough time certifying their products with the standards’ regulatory authorities, i.e. Malawi bureau of standards (MBS) in Malawi and the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) in Zambia. Therefore, the Gender, GMP, HACCP and food safety training was justified along these premises. The gender experts from CIAT and national research institutions (Hilda Kabuli) spearheaded this activity. The gender presentation was also made during the MSU Global Convening, where processors and many other stakeholders attended.

Main discussion areas during gender mainstreaming in legume processing presentation.

• Highlighting the need to mainstream gender into the agro-processing industry. 
• Presentation of relevant definitions used in gender should be understood by all. 
• Processors were enlightened on differences of sex, gender, equality, equity and liberation.
• Consideration of gender sensitive activities when implementing the project activities.
• Highlighting the the need for processors and project team members to capture gender sensitive data, create technologies that respond and address gender gaps and present information that is gender sensitive.
• Enhance the learning process, participants were divided to conduct group work by responding to the following questions: 
• At their respective working stations, was gender analysis conducted? 
• What are some of the gender gaps and challenges? 
• Any gender framework identified? 
• Is there any gender strategy available? 
• Were Gender performance Indicators identified? 
• What are some of Gender training capacity building areas?

Gender disaggregated data was collected and analyzed throughout all activities of objective 1, data compiled and analysed was disaggregated by gender  to examine any socioeconomic difference between men and women, youth and elderly or consumers of different income status. Special attention was given to testing difference between male and female decision makers in terms of preferences and willingness to pay for legume based processed products. The project found that women who make food purchasing decisions in more than 70% of the households have a lower WTP for precooked beans than men. In fact, female heads of households were WTP a price that is 10.6% lower than male headed of households for 180 g dehydrated pre-cooked bean while female spouses within male headed households were WTP a price that is 18.4% lower than male heads of households for the same product. This was after controlling for information in the analysis. The difference was much lower in Malawi; with women WTP 3.8% lower than male decision makers for 500g pack of dehydrated pre-cooked bean.

SUMMARY OF ISSUES RAISED DURING THE GENDER PRESENTATION IN BOTH MALAWI AND ZAMBIA

Most agro-processors have not yet done gender analysis in their institutions. The common gender gaps in agro-processing industry that were isolated includes:

• Agro-processors tend to employ more men than women. More men tend to have more qualifications and skills in machine operations than women.
• There are differences in roles that men and women do in agro-processing.  More men tend to do more laborious work and more paying jobs e.g. lifting bags. Most women do less labor demanding and low paying jobs e.g. grading, sorting, cleaning inside the factory, finance management and customer care.
• There are differences in time spent at the agro-processing factory. Most women find difficulties to work during odd hours due to security reasons. Furthermore, it was reported that most women tend to give more excuses which makes some of them to be absent from work most frequently.  
• There are less women in leadership positions. Most women lack self-confidence that hinders them from performing decision making functions. In some cases, where there is representation of women in leadership positions, there is less participation of women in decision making as some women tend to fear to make decisions. 
• Lack of more gender sensitive infrastructure (i.e. buildings), technologies (i.e. machines, processing techniques) and services to accommodate more women.

The participants indicated areas that they might need more training, and these includes:

• More training on gender mainstreaming in agro-processing.
• Gender sensitive packaging and trait preference assessment
• Training on how to develop a Gender Strategy for the processing entity.
• Training focusing on mindset change so that husbands become more supportive.
• Training focusing on tools for gender analysis.

Utilization of Research Outputs and Handoff/Scaling of the Outputs

The major research outputs include the three optimized  bean-based food products, policy briefs, protocols, students’ theses and dissertations and manuscripts. The optimized products were generated from research by students together with the processors. The students were academically and technically guided by scientists from implementing institutions. These outputs had an impact on perception of private sector players (processors), in as far as adoption, demand and commercialization of bean-based food products are concerned in Malawi and Zambia.

Seven processors have shown to have adopted the bean-based products developed and optimized by the project. Perisha Agro-processors, in Malawi, has now replaced its pure bean flour product with bean-based blended flours because they say such replacement drastically reduces the cost of production, while increasing nutrient density, acceptability and returns. Nouriceutic Foods, a new entry into processing industry, has adopted the precooked dehydrated bean and is now distributing its product in Malawi. Further, Nouricetic Foods is the only processor who is currently using the newly developed cabinet dehydrator from LUANAR. In Zambia, Trinity Super Food were influenced to adopt optimized recipes and processes when producing its bean-based blended flour and precooked dehydrated bean products. 

Other MSMEs, such as Sunfresh Africa and Agriche in Malawi, and Don Foods (Morning Beverage) and Beyond Bridge in Zambia, whose processing plants were not directly used for optimization also benefited from the technical information generated and exchange opportunities presented by the initiatives in project. Agriche, for instance, using information from the project, developed interest to develop own bean-based products prototypes, in the name of bean0-based cornflakes and bean-based noodles. 

In monetary terms, the most notable project achievement is the contract which Perisha signed with a notable and reputable organization that distributes flour blends in Malawi. The contract was to supply ten tons of flour blend and came about after the organization noticed Perisha’s collaboration with the project. This collaboration convinced the organization that Perisha has capacity to deliver safe and nutritious flour blend.

The two case stories below attest to the fact that there is utilization of research outputs and scaling of the outputs.

Agriche

In 2022, Kukada Mwai the proprietor for Agriche Foods in Malaiwi, was invited to a “Gender in Agro-food Processing Workshop” in Lilongwe, Malawi organized by the project. During the workshop, Kukada was intrigued by the project’s work on promotion of utilization of beans into various food products. He acknowledged that in Malawi, most people consume common beans mainly as relish after boiling. Therefore, he was inquisitive in learning other ways of utilizing beans. Later, he decided to start processing composite flours by mixing bean flour with flour from other cereals and legumes. His desire, he says, is to see more Malawians start preparing porridge frequently using bean flour, just as it is the case with maize, soya and groundnuts flours.

With thorough thought, he decided to go beyond the products that were suggested by the project and came up with his own novel ideas to create completely different products. Currently, the Blantyre City-based entrepreneur has come-up with his own food product prototypes, namely bean-cornflakes and bean noodles to add to his production. The Agriche Founder admits that his dreams would not have been easy to pursue if not for the helping hand of the project. 

“The Alliance has given me a platform to learn and meet different people, locally and internationally. Furthermore, experts from the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) and Department of Agricultural Research Services (DARS) have been instrumental in building my capacity, for instance, LUANAR has been helping me with formulations of my products to contain right and adequate nutritional values. While we are coming up with new products, it is also important that we ensure that the products contain right nutritional values through the process of optimization”. “Such is the case because we want to create products that contain balanced nutrients to suffice proper functioning of a human body,” he adds.

Perisha Agro and Packaging Enterprise

Annie Gondwe establish Perisha Agro and Packaging Enterprise in 2012. Perisha benefitted from the food processing project’s interventions, an initiative that was being implemented in Malawi and Zambia by the Alliance of Bioversity International and International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (The Alliance) and funded by USAID under Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research managed by Michigan State University.

Gondwe touts the partnership that has existed, over the years with the Alliance, through the Pan Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), which she says has assisted in propelling her dreams of processing nutritious flour blends. Initially, Gondwe was producing whole high iron bean (HIB) flour from NUA 45, but faced with some challenges, such as high input costs and poor consumer acceptability of the product. After hearing the whole idea of blending bean flour with other products through the project and learning on how it can transform her business and nutrition of consumers, she was quick to move in and deploy her locally available materials to make this endeavour possible.

With the help of data gathered by the Food Processing Project’s students from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), Gondwe has reformulated and rebranded her flour products.

“When we first heard about blended flour and its benefits, it raised our curiosity. Today the idea has reshaped our approach towards flour processing. We then banged heads to decide on the type of nutrition crops (legumes and cereals) to incorporate so as to come up with proper blends,” explains Gondwe.

She is grateful for the interventions, which she says have come with readily available markets for the products, a development that boosted her desire to do more.

Further Challenges and Opportunities

The short duration of the project entails that there are further challenges and opportunities needing attention to ensure adoption, and eventual phase out and replacement of the product. 

Status of innovations and technology

On food technologies, the project developed four categories of bean-based products and one cabinet dehydrator. These innovations/products are in various stages on the Product Life Cycle Map. For instance, other products, such as the bean-enriched thobwa beverage and bean paste could be both placed on proof of concept and validation stages. These products have potential and have been shown to be acceptable by the consumers and require further testing and validation to be propelled to next stages. Other bean-based products, namely: the precooked dehydrated beans and the bean-based blended flours could be placed on stages 5 (selection) and 6 (release). Roughly, these products have been released and some seven processors have shown to have adopted them. Perisha Agro and Packaging Enterprise, in Malawi, has now replaced its pure bean flour product with bean-based blended flours because they say such replacement drastically reduces the cost of production, while increasing nutrient density, acceptability and returns. Nouriceutic Foods, a new entrant into processing industry, has adopted the precooked dehydrated bean and is now distributing its product in Malawi. In Zambia, Trinity Super Food were influenced to adopt optimized recipes and processes when producing its bean-based blended flour and precooked dehydrated bean products. However, full commercialization efforts (stage 7) need to be done to incentivize the processors to inherent continue to produce these products for the markets.

On other technologies, such as the simple cabinet dehydrator (Drier), currently, only one processor (Nouriceutic Foods) is using this innovation. Though this is already in use, stages 4 and 5 (placed on proof of concept and validation stages) need to be redone for efficient commercialization purposes.

There are other products that are yet to be optimized at actual processing plants such as precooked wet beans, bean-based corn flakes and bean noodles. There are already some processors who are interested in these products. Sunfresh Africa in Malawi; Don Products and Beyond Bridge in Zambia are already processing precooked wet bean and the product is already in the market. There is a need for optimization of the processes on their plants. Agriche is interested to venture into bean-based corn flakes and bean noodles, and they have already developed their own prototypes (Stage 2).  

Financial and infrastructure support of MSMEs

It is evident that the private sector players engaged by the project are MSMEs. For them to make meaningful impact on commercialization efforts to impact on nutrition, they require huge investment support in the financial and infrastructure support. Efforts to link the MSMEs with relevant bodies shall go a long way towards meaningful upscaling of the outputs of the project and impact. The following bullets summarizes this point:

• Lack of technological support for improving the quality and safety of their products, as well as other significant challenges with sensory evaluation and shelf-life determination, nutritional labelling.
• The packaging materials for use in packaging are costly, and the technical knowledge required to choose packaging materials based on their practical functional characteristics is lacking.
• Insufficient Space to erect a logical processing plant and scale up production.
• A lack of incentive and financial support to purchase processing equipment, e.g. moisture content testing; for drying, particularly during wet seasons when clouds block sunlight and temperatures are low.
• With limited knowledge of product costing, the majority have set a profit margin of 30%, which they are unable to rationally justify, and the effects this has on their business are unknown.

Structural and policy support

Policy gaps related to legume production, processing, value addition and commercialization were identified. Available policies were promoting mainly production of maize, soybeans, and groundnuts. Common beans, pigeon peas and cow peas were not mentioned at all or were passively mentioned in policies for both countries. As a result of the policy review activity, two policy briefs (one for Malawi and another for Zambia) and two press releases (one for Malawi and another for Zambia) were developed and reviewed by the project team. Policy briefs and press releases were submitted to the Feed the Future innovation Lab for Legumes Systems research at MSU, specifically to the communications focal person for further review and clearance with USAID missions in Malawi and Zambia.

Some Policy Recommendations to Promote Processing of Legume-based Products in Malawi.

The potential to increase supply and subsequent processing and value addition of common bean, cowpeas and pigeon peas exist and these value chains can be promoted through:

• Increase investment in production to increase supply of these legumes. There should be deliberate effort my government to incentivize the production of these crops for export and value addition. Increased supply will pull down the prices and may attract MSMEs to process and add value because they will be competitive with other commonly used legumes. 
• There should be specific strategy document for promotion of high value legumes such as pigeon peas and cowpeas from production, processing, value addition and marketing. There is need to develop structured market.
• Training of MSMEs in processing and value addition of these legumes. MSMEs should extend their training to include processing of legumes.
• Development of structured markets for legumes including common beans, cow peas and pigeon peas.
• Special loan provision for agrofood sectors should be created. Malawi being agro-based economy should place processing and value addition of agricultural produce a priority. Creating loans solely for this sector will attract many MSMEs to process and add value to many agricultural commodities including legumes such as beans, cowpeas, and pigeon peas.
• Government to create market for SMEs by purchasing their products and distributing to SFP and families displaced during natural disasters.

Some Policy Recommendations to Promote Processing of Legume-based Products in Zambia.

• There is need to have commodity specific plans or strategies to deliberately widen scope of delivering on neglected commodities and sectors. For example, we observed that the Zambian government has embarked on crafting a Crop Diversification Strategy which will focus on different crops including the common beans.
• Increase investment in production to increase supply of legumes. There should be deliberate effort my government to incentivise the production of these crops for export. Increased supply will pull down the prices and may attract MSMEs to process and add value because they will be competitive with other commonly used legumes. 
• Special loan provision for agrofood sectors should be created. Zambia should place processing and value addition of agricultural produce a priority. Creating loans solely for this sector will attract many MSMEs to process and add value to many agricultural commodities including legumes.
• Training of MSMEs in processing and value addition of these legumes. 
• Improve access to trade data, avail existence of markets both domestically and internationally to MSMEs and creating web-based data base for visibility and create radio programs, campaigns to increase awareness of the nutrition and market potential of legumes.
• Establishment of legume processing Hubs in communities to impart processing and value addition skill among farmers.

APPENDICES