As the continent continues to commemorate the Year of Nutrition, AB InBev Africa has lifted the veil on five innovative projects designed to increase food security in different countries. This, says the beer giant, is in line with its sustainability goals to reduce water use and lower its climate change impact while creating value for local communities.
The Year of Nutrition was proclaimed by the African Union (AU). In a media release, AB InBev says it remains committed to driving more agricultural and food crop based projects. The projects currently running in Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia is said to shape a better future when it comes to food security and decent nutrition for all.
According to the AU, the Year of Nutrition draws attention both to the plight of people in Africa lacking access to nutritious food, and to those projects and stakeholders making progress in addressing this challenge.
Malnutrition – including undernutrition and nutritional deficiencies – is a major cause of ill health, especially among women and young children. Child mortality has drastically decreased in Africa over the past three decades, but rates of malnutrition remain high, and undernutrition is an underlying cause of almost half of child deaths.
The Year of Nutrition will focus on strengthening resilience in nutrition and food security, agro-food systems, health, and social protection systems for the acceleration of human, social and economic capital development.
FoodForAfrika.com has noted five of AB InBev’s agriculture related programmes in different countries. These projects, undertaken by different breweries, focus on the provision of skills, knowledge and new farming technology to farmers to enable a wider understanding of good agricultural practises.
Nile Breweries, Uganda
At Uganda’s AB InBev subsidiary, Nile Breweries (NBL) partners with smallholder farmers to boost the production of food crops. Not only does Nile Breweries source its materials from the crops produced by these farmers, it works closely with them for enhanced production of food crops. This includes potatoes, onions, carrots, beans, tomatoes, sunflower, cotton, peanuts and coffee.
Further, NBL recently signed a five-year agreement with the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in Uganda. This is aimed at boosting cassava production in the country.
The partnership improves the quality and quantity of cassava produced both for purposes of meeting the raw material needs of the brewer but also to increase the amount of the food crop available for consumption.
Under the initiative, NBL provides support in the transfer and dissemination of agricultural research and development technologies from NARO to the farming communities and value chains. The partnership is expected to boost cassava production from six metric tonnes per hectare to between 25 and 50 metric tonnes per hectare.
Cervejas de Moçambique, Mozambique
In Mozambique, local AB InBev brewer Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM) recently signed an agreement with the Marracuene district government to promote the cultivation of potato crops in Marracuene, where CDM has inaugurated a new brewery.
The project, which accepts a cohort of 12 farmers annually, covers a cultivated area of around 18 hectares. CDM has financed the acquisition of drip irrigation technology; supported the purchase of seeds and fertilizers; helped improve soil preparation; and established a communication platform to share project learnings.
The agreement improves food security, enhances business skills amongst farmers, and builds stronger small businesses. As a result, in the first year of implementation the project allowed district farmers to achieve an all-time record in the cultivation of potatoes, with a harvest of 603 tonnes.
This harvesting represents, in market price terms, around $111 000 net revenue for the farmers. The project had resulted in 102 direct jobs and 27 indirect jobs being created over the year.
Zambian Breweries, Zambia
In Zambia, AB InBev’s local subsidiary, Zambian Breweries has partnered with the ministry of agriculture, World Food Programme and the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute in a project to boost production of sorghum among small-scale farmers in the district of Gwembe.
The multistakeholder partnership helps smallholder farmers access high-yielding sorghum seed, training in crop management, insurance to protect their crops from climate shocks and providing agricultural extension services and markets. Although ZB uses sorghum as a raw material to produce clear beer, the crop is also a staple food in parts of the country.
Tanzania Breweries Limited, Tanzania
Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL), AB InBev’s Tanzania operation, also has a similar arrangement with sorghum farmers whereby it provides support in order for the farmers to improve and increase production of the crop.
The support includes provision of sorghum seeds, crop insurance, sorghum crop management training, agricultural extension services as well as improved aggregation and market access so that the farmers can maximise their sorghum crop harvest. In addition, farmers are encouraged to grow other crops like maize and sunflower for both subsistence and commercial ends.
Ibhayi Brewery, South Africa
Project Imifino at Ibhayi Brewery in Gqeberha, South Africa, is an innovative example of how waste streams can become productive inputs fuelling value-added products and outcomes. Project Imifino takes water, heat, and anaerobic sludge waste streams produced by the brewery, and converts them into agricultural inputs which sustain wetlands and spinach beds.
The project has since developed into a commercial 2 000 square metre drip irrigation system used to grow spinach in raised beds. This system filters the water, improving its quality to the extent that it is available to be recovered for reuse in the brewery.
This reduces the brewery’s water footprint significantly, creates jobs, and supports approximately R2 million of annual downstream value creation.
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