6 blocks of tofu weighing in at 2.1kg

On the first day of the training session, three batches of soymilk were made. One batch of the Soymilk flavored with lemongrass, a local favorite. The local school children eagerly drank the milk and there was a lineup to get more. On the following day, three more batches of soymilk were also quickly consumed; the children also liked the milk when it was flavored with fresh locally supplied vanilla. This area will benefit immensely if they take full advantage of the large amount of milk which can be made in one day (100-200 litres), which could provide soymilk for at least 500 children and adults, as well as providing tofu to add to other meals, peanut butter, yogurt and processed fruits and vegetables.

Winnua is a socially responsible business involved in agricultural development in northern Mozambique. Their SoyCow program involves both a commercial and a humanitarian aspect. They sell bottles of soymilk and yogurt, but also distribute milk in bulk form to local schools. At present they are providing a daily serving to 1,200 children daily.

After more than a year, the monitoring shows three good results: More children enter school, a higher percentage of the children that enter do not drop out, and also their academic performance has improved. The health posting also confirms that the level of malnutrition has gone down in the village that receives the milk.

As part of USAID’s Global Hunger and Food Security Research Strategy: Climate Resilience, Nutrition, and Policy, Malnutrition Matters is assisting the National Soybean Research Lab at the University of Illinois and WISHH, to implement a project called Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research. 

This project is being implemented in Ghana and Mozambique. MM’s role is to provide small-scale soy processing equipment, operational training to produce soymilk and derivative foods, and marketing training for the micro-enterprises that will operate the SoyCow equipment. Three will be deployed in urban and village settings in Ghana, and two systems will be deployed in Mozambique. The three new SoyCows for Ghana will complement the four already operating there under the auspices of other projects; MM expects that Ghana will soon be leading Africa in the sustainable small-scale production of soy beverages. The picture shows soymilk production at Agona Ashanti, near Kumasi in Ghana. This site will be expanded under the SIL project. 

MM is also excited to be expanding the small-scale soy production that is currently being introduced in Mozambique. Mozambique, with a recent emphasis on cultivation of soybeans primarily for animal feed, has great potential to maximize the benefit of soybean cultivation for the Mozambican people by using a substantial part of their soybean crop for direct, local human consumption.

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is one of the world's leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Their award-winning research for development (R4D) addresses the development needs of tropical countries. They work with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture.

As part of its N₂Africa program, which promotes the cultivation and post-harvest processing of nitrogen fixing crops including soybeans, Malnutrition Matters has recently installed 5    SoyCows for IITA at various centers in Africa , including DRC, Tanzania and Nigeria. These SoyCows enable local production of soy foods for human consumption and facilitate training of entrepreneurs to produce protein-rich, yet affordable, soymilk and derivative foods. The IITA is implementing a program called Agripeneur Youth which provides entrepreneurial training for youth in agricultural pursuits.

A comment from one of the Agripeneur Youth: “We are ready to step into the competitive environment of Soy production market, … as global warming and environmental degradation is increasing, our call goes to the donor and other partners to educate youth on importance of environment conservation by supporting a healthy Soy crop production for human consumption, donors should also emphasis on educating youth on machine installation knowledge and so to educate on agripreneur marketing strategy as to make better Africa Soy productions.

The Bukoba Women’s Employment Association (BUWEA) started growing soybeans in 2007. It is a group of women who farm together and look for value-added opportunities to increase employment in their town in northern Tanzania.

In 2008 they were taught how to make soy milk using small blenders. They were able to make 18 liters of soymilk in a week . BUWEA spent some years on training and educating people about the nutritional value of soy foods including giving brochures to villagers, teachers, clinic centers and in various offices. They started a school feeding program which was funded by donations. Three schools benefited from this program for six months and through measurement of height and weight of the students, a positive impact was shown.

However, it was difficult to use small blenders so they were very pleased to learn about the SoyCow system. BUWEA procured a SoyCow system and started production in July 2013. BUWEA is selling one liter of fresh soy milk for 600 Tsh (Tanzanian shillings) and one liter of yoghurt is sold at 1200 Tsh. Production ramped up slowly from about 50 liters per week in 2013 to the current production of over 100 liters per week in 2014. Due to the success of the SoyCow, MM installed a second system in 2014, at the request of BUWEA.

As part of their School Outreach Program they are drying African Leafy Vegetables (ALVs) that include Amaranth, Black Night Shade, Crotolaria, Jute Mallow, Spider Planter.  These are the vegetables whose supply is very low during the dry season, but they are high in micro-nutrients, have medicinal benefits and are resistant to pests and diseases.

As a strategy to promote the consumption of dried vegetables, they are intensifying drying during the rainy season when the supply of the vegetables is high and packaging for storage and distribution during the dry season when supply is highly depressed. The dried vegetables will be distributed to parents, children and farmers during the dry period.

Six VitaGoats and one SoyCow are operational in a program sponsored by TSBF, at projects in Western Kenya near Eldoret. Collaboration with Minstry of Agriculture is to stimulate soybean growing and processing with 300 small farmers, and improve nutrition with soymilk and yogurt.

This project is also in collaboration with "Western Appropriate Technology", a local organization which implements and supports technical development and training for farmers and agricultural processors.

The NGO partner, Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (AMPATH) is one of Kenya's most comprehensive initiatives to combat HIV. AMPATH is a working model of urban and rural HIV preventive and treatment services in the public sector. AMPATH cares for more than 17,000 HIV infected adults and children, with nearly one-half of all patients on anti-retroviral drugs. AMPATH has implemented programs that foster food and economic security for HIV infected persons and their families. AMPATH demonstrates the power of US and African academic medical centers united by common vision.

This area is very suitable for production of soya to use with the VitaGoat food processing system. The system enables the people of this community to have access to affordable and sustainable nutrition. This facility currently looks after approximately 65 day care children as well as children attending the facility for after school care and food provision.

All Kids Can Learn
Africare Project, Zambia, March 2007

All Kids Can Learn (AKCL), is located in a small community, one hour from Lusaka, Zambia. It is a multi-faceted local NGO, which works with orphans and vulnerable children, particularly those affected by AIDS. It is supported by various Zambian organizations and MM partner Africare, as well as US - based volunteers who manage the project. 

Teenagers and young adults are being trained in agriculture, equipment service, technical skills and now the operation of a VitaGoat. This project is being developed to become a local and regional training and service center for the technology, while its general operation is also being used to supply food to AKCL and for sale in the local community.

This report describes the installation of the first pilot system in Guinea and assesses the technical and business potential of the system in an African context. 

The selected location in Guinea is in Dinguiraye, about 500 km northeast of the capital, Conakry. There are about 30,000 people in the community. Dinguiraye has all the elements of a good VitaGoat location: no electricity, sporadic water availability and remoteness from major markets.

A variety of different foods was processed with the system including:

• corn meal and corn flour
• sorghum flour
• peanut butter (or "paste")
• tomato puree and juice
• mango puree and juice
• soymilk
• tofu
• sour soymilk ("lait caill")
• ground roasted soybeans (soya coffee)
• shea nut paste (used to make shea nut butter -used in confectionary 
  and cosmetic products in the West)

The products deemed to have the most economic potential (and happily, with a potentially large impact on nutritional status of consumers) were the soyfoods (soymilk, tofu and sour soymilk), the sterilized fruit purees (mango, papaya, etc) and shea nut butter. The soya “dairy” cost analysis was quite revealing, showing that soymilk products could be sold for about a half to a third the price of equivalent dairy products (when they are available), and still provide a healthy profit (50-75%) for the group.

Here is a brief illustrated montage of the VitaGoat experience in Guinea: