Food and agricultural processing projects
The Rural Infrastructure and Agro Industries Division, has the capacity to assist with the planning, design and implementation of small agro-industries, by providing the required technical and engineering inputs to comprehensive agricultural development and agro industrialization projects.
The subject matters of food and agricultural processing projects cover a range of engineering principles and technologies to add value, preserve and enhance quality and safety of food and agricultural products, as well as to comprehensively utilize agricultural resources through agro industrialization activities. Of course, this also includes fresh or fresh-like produce that needs to reach the consumers with the original or enhanced quality characteristics, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, for which proper storage and transport technologies must be put to work. Our publications on the topic show that there must be an identified market opportunity that justifies the manufacture of different products which, in turn, require specialized handling, processing and packaging technologies. On the other hand, agro-industrial enterprises, whether small, medium or large, are part of agri-food chains and as such need to rely on the timely and economic provision of the right raw materials and inputs, both in quantity as well as in quality, and therefore a high degree of efficient coordination with agricultural production must be achieved. That is why those activities involving the application of cost-effective technologies and engineering principles as part of agro industrial projects or commercial enterprises must also include and be coordinated with agricultural production aspects and the marketing aspects.
In recent years, several projects following this approach in multidisciplinary teams with other divisions in FAO have been carried out. As an example, in Nicaragua a project for capacity building in quality management is under implementation. Other projects have dealt or are dealing with the development of certain fruit crops such as those for cactus (Opuntia spp.) in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Namibia; to evaluate the capacity for handling and storage of grains in Argentina; to produce biogas from water weeds and animal manure in China for electricity production as part of an integrated rural energy system destined to farm and agro-industrial uses; to promote small value-addition processing activities in Sudan (with UNDP); to promote value addition to cassava in the Dominican Republic; to support school feeding programmes which use process products in Guatemala and Colombia, or food security programmes in El Salvador, Namibia and Botswana; and to produce biodiesel from rapeseed in Belarus or sweet sorghum in Peru, just to give a few examples. Specialized studies have also been developed for assessing technology needs in issues such as food packaging (Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt); energy needs of agro industries and agri-food transport in rural areas of Latin America and the Caribbean; and the role of food engineering in enhancing food quality and safety and promoting competitiveness of small food industries.
For information about project support for FAO, Please contact your local FAO representative or write to
AGS-registry@fao.org |
