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Farinha is the Brazilian gari.
Farinha is a Brazilian food product made from cassava that
looks like gari. The only difference being that the farinha
is not fermented before roasting, but both products look
alike (Fig 1, 3). Farinha is extremely popular in various
states of Brazil and it is eaten with many plates. Brazil is
producing an estimated 4 million tons of farinha per year.
Similarly, gari is very popular in west Africa and its use
could be extended in the rest of Africa in the near future
because of its long shelf life, which makes it attractive
for urban consumers in particular.
Both products have
a long shelf life because they are quite dry, gari is
usually around 8% humidity and farinha humidity could be of
4%. In Brazil farinha is sold in various ways from large
bags of 50kg to bottles of 1kg..
Industrialized production of
farinha in Parana state. In Brazil, the
production of farinha is done both traditionally and
industrially (Fig 2). Today there is a long list of
companies producing farinha and trading farinha in all
states of Brazil. There are many variants of farinha based
on slight differences in the preparation, mostly about using
two roasting phases and different level of cooking
temperatures (Fig 1).
Parana was “colonized” by
Brazilians in the 1950’s firstly for lumber and coffee and
later on for cassava and cattle and today for soybean.
Because the manpower was very reduced in the state farmers
and processors immediately developed the mechanization of
the production of the processing. Today there are 163
factories in Parana producing from 10t to 180t per day of
farinha. The norm is around processing 200t of fresh roots
per day for 60t of farinha. Most of the farinha is exported
in the other states of Brazil.
The cassava roots to produce farinha. The cassava roots to produce farinha are quite different from those cultivated in Africa. They are usually cultivated over two cycles of a total of 16-20 months, with a cut back of the plant during the winter season after 6-8 months growth. The roots are short and the peels are thin making peeling an easy process with less waste (6% max). The major difference is also the DMC which, unless of a particular stress of the plants, is around 35-40%. This is making the processing much easier with a much higher efficiency. The low DMC will remain a major constraint in Africa for the industrialization of gari, until high DMC CVs will be produced by the breeders.
Mechanization of the cassava production is a pre-requisite for industrialization. The other major difference is the yield which was 28 t/ha in 2014 in Parana, instead of about 10 t/Ha in Africa. This will have to be changed in Africa for allowing industrialization of the gari production. We do know that mechanization of the production with the best agronomic practices and available improved CVs would boost the production to 25-30 t/Ha, making it compatible with an industrialization similar to the farinha production in Brazil.
Source of energy to produce farinha. An additional difference is the source of energy. In Parana, factories are running with some amount of electricity from the grid to run engines but the majority of the energy to roast the farinha is from a mixture of 80% biogas and 20% of wood. The biogas is produced entirely from waste from the factory and the wood is produced from planted Eucalyptus trees in the state. In other words, there is no impact on the environment from modern farinha factories. New gari factories in Africa should include the biogas production from waste effluents and solid waste.
No waste in farinha factories. Because the peels of the roots are very thin, the solid waste is less than 6% versus 30% for gari. This solid waste is processed to produce fresh cattle feed consumed in the state as well. This constitutes an additional revenue for the factory. Farinha factories consume 3m3 of water per ton of roots, but most of the effluent from the press is recycled, all the liquid waste of the factory is collected in ponds covered with a thick plastic cover to recuperate the methane form the bacterial fermentation. The effluents of the ponds are used to irrigate farms nearby which is making an additional revenue for the factory. Practically there is nothing wasted in a farinha factory. If this was applied to a gari factory in Africa it would make a huge difference for the environment and for the workers.
Impact of the use of fermentation. In absence of fermentation the effluents at the press are very low in starch and the pressing operation very easy to do, especially with the new press machines used in Parana. In the case of fermentation press machines from Brazil would have to be adapted to gari production as it is well established that pressing is fairly different, but Brazilian engineers are familiar with this issue. The second impact of fermentation is the need to stock the matter for 1-3 days, meaning stocking 100 to 300 tons of cassava for a 100 t/day factory. There will be an additional cost for this storage compared to farinha. Brazilians also use fermentation in some cases but generally for a very short period of time, this could be explored.
Impact of industrialization
of gari. A comparison of a farinha factory
with a gari center processing 100 t/day has been done with
available information (Table 1). It is obvious that the
farinha factory is far more efficient than a gari processing
center in many respects:
1- Efficacy of
production per capita: there is a ratio of 69
between the two systems, this is the combined effect of high
DMC and machine use. Pricewise it is highly dependent of the
cost of the roots (double in Brazil compared to Nigeria), on
the price of sales products (much higher for gari), but
again the ratio is in the magnitude of 40 in favor of
farinha.
2- Number of workers; very few
people (35) are needed to run a farinha factory versus huge
numbers for a gari processing center (1200), because all is
done manually in Africa. Some people would see the impact of
industrialization of gari production in Africa greatly
impacting the number of working women, and therefore a loss
of income for women who would not be employed anymore. Some
other people would see it as a gain for these women to do a
more productive and rewarding job. Peeling cassava roots all
day long is certainly not improving the future of these
women. Plans should be developed in parallel to
industrialization to make sure that these women would be
embarked into other more rewarding activities. However, it
should also be noted that new gari factories would not
replace existing traditional gari centers, but would come in
addition to, therefore the transition would be slow and
progressive, allowing time for the labor force to find new
jobs.
3- No children are working in
farinha factories: this simple fact would send all the
children to school, allowing them to learn new skills and to
climb the economic ladder!
4- Impact on the
environment: the use of biogas is an enormous
improvement on both the cost and the impact on nature. This
should also be developed in Africa.
5- Cost of
roots; although the cost of the roots is double in
Brazil compared to Africa, the system is highly economical.
This is making cassava the most productive crop for farmers
and allows input and new equipment, which in turn increase
yield.
6- Working conditions: modern
farinha factories are super clean, with no starch dust, no
effluent, no bad smell… therefore very safe for workers.
This would be a huge improvement in Africa.
7-
Food safety conditions: a farinha factory is
improving and controlling the food safety simply because the
food is in contact with stainless steel equipment, because
manual handling is limited or non-existent, because the
processing is fast, and finally because they clean
constantly. This would be a huge improvement in Africa.
All in all, there are many obvious
benefits to industrialize the gari processing in Africa,
there will be however a number of challenges to meet. The
first question will be an economical question: in the
African context will it be economical to build and run such
factory? A detailed economic study should be quickly
realized to answer this question.
The remaining issues
will be the quality of the roots (DMC content), the regular
supply of the roots, the capital investment needed, and the
maintenance of the equipment. All these elements, but DMC
content of the roots, could and should be carefully planned
in a good development strategic plan in Africa.
The plan should comprise but is not
limited to:
- A detail economic study of a gari factory
using Brazilian equipment
- A formal collaboration with
Brazil and African nations
- A formal collaboration
between Brazilian companies and African entrepreneurs
-
The set-up of an affordable loan program for African
entrepreneurs
- The development of a network in Africa to
sell and maintain Brazilian equipment
- A strong plan to
train African technical personnel in Brazil
- A strong
plan to breed new cassava CV in Africa with high and stable
DMC
Cost of a farinha factory. A modern farinha factory of 200t/day in Brazil costs about $1 million in equipment and $2.5 millions with land, structures, trucks, electrical installations, control quality laboratory, computers, and a biogas station.
Fig 1. Diagram showing the process to produce farinha and picture of bags of farinha on the market | |
Fig 2. Traditional preparation of the farinha (left) and industrial preparation (right) | |
Fig 3. Diagram showing the process to produce gari and picture of bags of gari on the market | |
Fig 4. Traditional fermentation of the gari (left) and roasting of the gari (right) |
Table 1: Comparison of the elements of a farinha factory and of a gari processing center, both processing 100t/day of cassava roots. The green cells indicate the advantageous elements and the yellow cell indicate the relative efficiency.
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