Institute of Technological Research National Center for Research The Development of an Improved Churner for Butter Extraction A PID Gender Analysis Case Study By: Researcher/ Mawahib Eltayeb Ahmed (Food Engineering Technologist) Appropriate Technology Department -Institute of Technological Research National Center for Research - Khartoum - Sudan 1 Acknowledgement This work is conducted by Ms. Mawahib Eltayeb (Researcher) and Emad Mahjoub (designer) as a research in Appropriate Technology Department of National Center for Research. I would like to thank Dr. Jean Mari Diop PROLINNOVA Back Stopper for his continued Support to this Work. I would like also to thank Practical Action staff who provided useful support to the study, namely the Country Director Mr. Mohamed Majzoub Fidiel, Siham M. Osman, Noureldin Ahmend Abdallah and Baligha Ali Takana. The following institutions deserve special thanks for the support extended to the project; Food Research Center, Sudan University of Science and ElObied Agriculture Research Center (mainly Mahmoud Awad Mekki). Finally, I appreciate the endless support from the community in ElKryab village (mainly the innovator Fatima and her Family). 2 Chapter 1 1.1. Introduction The new schools in sustainable development show a gradual realization and recognition for participatory approaches that facilitates the process of linking the communities with scientific family (researchers & academic people). By adopting participatory approaches the local knowledge and innovation will be respected, promoted, shared and scaled up. Participatory approaches were triggered by discussions on farming systems research and extension during 1970s and were followed by the beginning of Participatory Technology Development(PTD) and farmer to farmer extension approaches during 1980s.The approaches of facilitating(twoways)learning between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ evolved during 1990s as an element that aimed at strengthening participatory approaches. Based on participatory concept and focus on the link that can be developed between the farmer and the researcher, a program called Prolinnova was initiated, This program is a Global Partnership Program under the umbrella of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and is an international learning and advocacy network that was launched by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are deeply concerned with agricultural research and development. Currently, Research and development is widely seen as a learning process. The paradigm shift here is about making development agendas more farmers or users-led based on local knowledge and skills. This also means strengthening participatory approaches in the local context. These new perspectives suggest that research and development can no longer be the exclusive domain of scientists. Participatory Innovation Development (PID) is one of the participatory approaches which adopted in Prolinnova .PID would: 1. Analyze local innovations and provide a focus for groups\communities to examine opportunities and set agenda for R&D. 2. Recognition of local capacities and creativity is prerequisite for true partnership in R&D. 3. Engagement in this PID process strengthens the community organization for development and also strengthens the capacities of agricultural services to support endogenous development. Developing local innovation is a process carried out by PID approach where there are many words related to innovation, first an innovator is defined as ‘someone who develops or tries out new ideas without having been requested by outsiders to do so’. Also the definition for Innovation is the adoption of New ideas based on local resources evolved through the experimentation of local people to address the specific local constraints and opportunities. The second definition refers to the products of the Innovation, whereas the innovation is defined as the process and capacity of creating something new. Prolinnova’s focus is on Innovation (without an ‘s’),that is, creativity and capacity to innovate. An innovation is normally used as entry point to call partners to the creativity of farmers. The most important is not how many Innovations are documented and spread, but actually how many people started to realize that they can deal with/interact with farmers in a different way, looking at them as sources of ideas and solutions rather than just only passive receptors. 3 One of the local innovations in Sudan is the traditional churning that women practice to produce dairy products. Generally, rural women in Sudan spend considerable time milking animals, often twice a day, and in making dairy products,. These dairy products enrich the farm family’s diet with an important source of protein, whilst selling the surplus provides the family with extra cash to buy other household food such as sugar, tea leaves and cooking oil. For example in the household economies of the Baggara (nomadic tribes in western Sudan) households, it is estimated that the total revenue from the sale of dairy products accounts for at least a third of average household incomes. Normally butter was derived from acidified milk production which is probably the most ancient type of processing. Pastoralists were actually nomads who during their travels used to carry sour milk and who discovered that after it had been shaken for a few hours on horse/ donkey or camel back, it would separate into two phases. One of them after separation was actually the forerunner of butter. It should be noted that the technology for butter making is almost universal. During the seasons when milk is relatively plentiful rural women process (by churning) part of the milk into buttermilk (Roab) and clarified butter or ghee (Semin); rural women in the different regions of the Sudan have different processing technologies and methods. For example in the western region women use traditional churner called “Bukhsa” made of gourd/ calabash while in the north and central regions women use an agitator made from goat skin called “ Sein”. The research is mainly provision of a technology modified from the traditional churning (ElSein or AlBukhsa) with participatory approaches mainly PID, with PID the innovator (women) were participated in all stages of technology development. 1.2. Rationale Traditional methods of milk processing generally give low yields of final product per unit of milk and require high labor inputs. In addition, the final products are hygienically inferior and are of low stability (Faisal et al 2003). However, there is a market demand for these products but women are not able to produce sufficient quantities to meet the needs of their domestic use and market due to the very limited facilities they have. Ten years ago a research in National Research Center (Appropriate Technology Department) started taking an interest in the process that rural women of El Kryab village (around 30 Km east Khartoum) use in the processing of milk and production of ghee. Some problems of this method concerning hygiene, productivity and practicality for increasing income purposes were identified. Many designs of churners were improved based on the traditional one, prototyping the improved version, conducting some experiments to check its performance and finally getting the prototype checked by women who were users of the traditional technology. However, the results show that women have actually not responded positively towards the new technology. This may be due to women not being involved in the process of the research, mainly at the designing stage. Thus the idea of this research is to involve women from the beginning in a process of joint experimentation to improve the designs of butter churners and also in the process of extraction. The basic principles of Participatory Innovation Development which is the main method for this research, is mainly intuitive knowledge of villagers and formal knowledge of the scientists. The important principles of the PID that were considered in this research are: • Start from what women have developed or are developing on their own and build on it. • Prevent adverse effects of PID on others/environment. • Respect knowledge and experience of all producers and apply as appropriate. • Disseminate findings by sharing through appropriate media. 4 • Women/local people take the lead in the process. • Idea of replicating within the community 1.3. Purposes and Objectives Purpose The intention is to set up a process of joint experimentation (participatory innovation development) that takes into account gender aspects in improving the design of new modified churner to have better performance in terms of simplicity of use, saving time and productivity rate. In doing so, the socio-economic and environmental impacts of the churners traditionally used by women will be assessed. Specific objectives • To analyze the technology according to women’s needs and capabilities. • To evaluate the effort of the women with respect to income generated (whether the income generated from this activity is fair, with respect to the effort exerted by the woman) • To evaluate the design of the technology in terms of performance including the practicality, production rate and hygienic issues taking into account men’s and women’s perceptions. • To study the potential of improving the technology to increase productivity and consequently increase daily income taking gender aspects into account. 5
Practical Action,