The main goal of SIL and its partners is to enhance nutrition and livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) throughout the soybean value chain. This is the heart of the new processor-to-processor public-private partnership among SIL, the American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS), and Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA). The three organizations are working together to expand the local demand for soybean by bringing the technical expertise of AOCS processing and technical engineers to firms in SSA. This initiative, a.k.a. Processor-to-Processor, enables technical assistance from the USA oilseed processing industry to improve the efficiency and profitability of local soybean crushers and food and feed manufacturers.
Mike Michener, Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, USAID
This new partnership was presented during a session, entitled, “How Processing Affects Emerging Economies,” at the AOCS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 2nd. This scientific session included a kick-off presentation by Mike Michener, Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, who presented a fascinating look at the 4th agricultural revolution, titled Oilseeds, innovation, and the 4th agricultural revolution: USAID’s perspective.
Dr. Marjatta Eilitta, director of CNFA’s Farmer-to-Farmer program in Southern Africa presented the Processor-to-Processor program to AOCS members. Agrival’s Bob Andriamifidy closed the session with an overview of their encompassing strategy to create a soybean value chain for human and animal consumption with locally grown soybeans. Agrival is working with farmers and establishing a new processing line in Madagascar, which would benefit from the expertise of AOCS volunteers, under the program. The AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo is a premier international science and business forum on oils, fats, proteins, surfactants, and related materials.
From left to right: Dr. Keshun Liu, Dr. Juan Andrade, Michael Michener, Annette Donnelly, Marjatta Eilitta, Ece Gulkirpik
During this session, Dr. Keshun Liu, from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) was presented with the prestigious Alton Bailey Award for his outstanding lifetime contribution advancing the science of innovative applications in fats and oils. Dr. Liu is a collaborator with SIL on a low-cost method to create soy protein concentrate (SPC), a byproduct of soybean cake, with over 60% protein. This method is a potential game-changer, enabling emerging market processors to add a low-cost plant-based protein ingredient to enhance nutrient density in food.
University of Illinois doctoral candidate Ece Gulkirpik shared details on current efforts to reproduce Dr. Liu’s SPC method within an African context. In partnership with Dr. Kephas Nowakunda at Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Laboratory, SPC is being produced with this novel method using locally available soy cake. SPC is then added into regional staples and novel foods for human consumption. The tripartite collaboration with AOCS, CNFA and SIL is committed to bringing the latest innovations in food processing to SSA.
The session was organized and chaired by SIL Nutrition leads, Ms. Annette Donnelly (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Dr. Juan Andrade (University of Florida).
Dr. Keshun Li receiving the Alton Bailey Award for his contribution to the advancement of innovative applications in fats and oils
Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research (Soybean Innovation Lab)
1301 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801 * Tel. (217) 333-7425 * soybeaninnovationlab@illinois.edu
