TASTY MOZAMBIQUEMozambique Heritage Soy-Enhanced Recipes

No matter where you are in the world, people connect with food. For SIL, finding ways to include soy in local foods presents an opportunity to improve nutrition and increase demand for the crop. In addition, developing recipes that include soy offer a way for local women to be more equitably involved in the soy farming, processing, and cooking process.

SIL is assessing issues of gender equity and the role of women within sustainable soybean systems. One of the goals is to understand gender inequalities in the agriculture sector to help transition rural women, their families and communities toward improved food security, health and economic development.

University of Missouri and SIL researcher Nina Furstenau has developed a cookbook of Mozambican heritage recipes, many enhanced locally with soybean, entitled Tasty Mozambique.

MozambiqueInstituteofAgriculturalResearch(IIAM)professionalsselectproduceforrecipetestinginSIL’sTastyMozambiqueproject.

Imagecredit:AllisonSmythe

Recipe cards are also available for each recipe in the book and include pictures with easy to follow instructions for use in rural villages with limited literacy skills. Image credit: Nina Furstenau

Furstenau interviewed small-holder women farmers about their food history – the recipes they know and love that are integral to their way of life in Mozambique. From these interviews, Furstenau selected dishes to which soy can be added, and then worked with the farmers to cook and evaluate the recipes. Farmers also provided feedback on locally available cooking utensils to ensure recipes would be appropriate and accessible.

The cookbooks will be distributed to project partners, nutrition and agricultural development organizations, government agencies, and USAID implementers in both print and web-based formats. The book will introduce local families to new soy-enhanced dishes while connecting on a personal level. This project in Mozambique will inform SIL’s broader inquiry into the most effective ways for introducing soy nutrition to undernourished communities around the world.

soybeaninnovationlab.illinois.edufeedthefuture.gov

”Spare change biscuits” are sold by the women entrepreneurs at roadside stands. The money is used to invest back into the women’s

group for materials and supplies. Image credit: Nina Furstenau

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research is USAID's only comprehensive program dedicated to soybean technical knowledge and innovation. Our international team of tropical soybean experts provides direct

support to researchers, private sector firms, non-governmental organizations, extensionists, agronomists, technicians and farmer associations tasked with soybean development.

Contact SIL at soybeaninnovationlab@illinois.edu

SIL is grateful to our partners for their support on this project.

Income Generation for Women Farmers

Furstenau has also been working with the women smallholder farmers in the project groups to provide a way to increase their income.

By making biscuits called “spare change” and selling them at roadsides (to passersby, children, etc.) the women are including soy in the recipes and making money that they keep amongst themselves. Using a prototype hand grinder and strainer from Zimbabwe, the group of women are making the biscuits and splitting profits amongst themselves. A small amount is held back from each sale to raise funds to purchase other materials and tools to continue the enterprise.

As the profit grows, other women are able to join the group, and the process becomes self sustaining. This is money that the women smallholder farmers can keep for themselves, which also helps improve gender equity. These women also become trainers for the next group of women.

Tasty Mozambique and the Income Generation project are a part of a broader team of SIL researchers working on gender equity and women empowerment in soy farming. The research team aims to identify constraints for women integrating soybean into their cropping mix, household diet, and income generation.

To learn more about Tasty Mozambique, contact Nina Furstenau at: furstenaun@missouri.edu

Visit our webpage: http://soybeaninnovationlab.illinois.edu/tasty-mozambique

TASTY MOZAMBIQUEMozambique Heritage Soy-Enhanced Recipes

soybeaninnovationlab.illinois.edufeedthefuture.gov