Cassava’s wonders: from seed to sausage
Noela Ojara, founder of Divine Organic Foods, knows cassava like the back of her hand. Traditionally an essential food security crop for households in northern Uganda, the annual crop is cultivated in tropical regions where it’s the third-largest source of carbohydrates after rice and maize.
Noela has been developing the cassava value chain, which impacts the livelihoods of over 80,000 smallholder farmers to boost incomes in her home country and improve food security. She looks forward to taking the starchy crop one step forward, by launching cassava-based products as a commercially viable meat alternative.
Growing up, Noela V. Ojara from Kampala, Uganda, would have never imagined becoming a cassava expert and farmer. She considered herself a city girl, raised in an environment largely disconnected from farm life. However, her grandmother had a farm in the country’s northern district of Apac, and Noela watched both her and her mother handling and storing seeds, tending to the farm, and preparing healthy, organic meals.
Noela learned the value of food and traditions, including the tradition that would one day become her own, after she became the family caretaker and was responsible for the farm.
While pursuing her degree in Library and Information Science, Noela became convinced that she could create healthy, organic sausages based on cassava for Uganda’s young, growing population. After graduating, her research confirmed that cassava is an ideal, alternative plant-based binder.
“The idea for a vegetable sausage took me to research vegetative binders. I learned that cassava was a very good binder due to its starch. I added legumes for the protein, and in the end the sausage I produced tasted 80% like chicken. But I encountered a problem: there were poor product quality gaps in the value chain so I couldn’t sell my sausage, [and the] quality of the cassava flour was poor.”
Noela’s journey from sausage to seed began.
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Having decided to learn more about the tuberous plant, in 2017 Noela invested in and started cultivating a 10-acre farm of clean cassava seeds, which over the year quickly expanded to over 60 acres. She called her enterprise Divine Organic Foods.
Noela set out to learn everything there is to know about the traditional crop. As northern Uganda came out of a 20-year-war, the then 26-year-old saw lots of suffering around her, especially when it came to the lives of the young and women. Noela wanted to understand the national ecosystem, and what role cassava and agriculture plays for the country – and ultimately how she could make a difference in the lives of her people.
“I think Divine Organic Foods emerged not just as a business venture but as a beacon of hope and resilience for my Lango kinsmen who were deeply impacted by a prolonged period of conflict. By focusing on cassava, a crop with profound cultural significance and resilience against adversity, I chose not only a sustainable path for agriculture but also a symbolic one that reconnects with my heritage.”
The graduate decided to pursue a second degree in entrepreneurship and agribusiness to discover the art of building her enterprise. “This opened my mind: cassava, traditionally grown for food security, had a lot of economic potential, in many ways.”
The student and farmer started collaborating with stakeholders in the food supply chain to address systemic challenges in agriculture.
For instance, to include mixed cassava seed varieties at farm level, post-harvest handling seemed too poor due to limited technologies and delays in processing, which influences the quality of the starch.
“We need more research on cassava breeds. That is why we collaborate with Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization to promote new technologies. However, there is still the need for funding to research climate-resilient cassava breeds.”
Moreover, with cassava taking 12 months to grow – and the land typically belonging to men with women working on it – Noela offers women sweet potato seeds for household food security and additional income. This way, Divine Organic Foods offers a holistic approach and greater equality in the farming communities.
Currently pursuing a PhD in agricultural systems and value chain management, Noela hopes to become empowered to help sustain sustainable communities in her environment and address these systemic challenges even more.
Cassava is known as a drought-resistant crop but poor farming practices, too much rain or other changes in weather patterns does affect the harvest. In Uganda, the past several years had been difficult for farmers, Noela tells me. Farmers lost many acres of cassava as the seed varieties succumbed to disease as a result.
“We have varieties that need an adequate amount of rain when planting. If it doesn’t rain, we lose the crop, which then translates into low food security. If there is too much rain, they rot in the ground. However, as it is drought-resistant, once planted and sprouting, the amount of rain won’t affect the year-round crop.”
A circular business economy model is important for Noela. It ensures that the cassava plant is used entirely, from its leaves, stems and tubers to its peels. This reduces waste and any potential loss for the consumers, women market vendors, and smallholder farmers.
For instance, the peels are either taken back to the farm for compost or used as animal feed. In addition, Noela is recycling the company’s used water and working towards having a biogas plant, where tons of waste could be turned into energy.
At the farm level, Divine Organics Food encourages farmers to use plant-based pesticides, practice crop rotation, and take back waste into the garden to improve soil fertility.
Farmers also receive a calendar for their crop planting and are encouraged to plant fruit trees where possible, both for their own household nutrition but also for income.
Being fully responsible also means having a social impact.
Noela makes sure that women and young people are engaged throughout the different value chains she is involved in, including cassava, from on-farm production and transportation to value addition and retailing primary and secondary value-added products.
Divine Organic Foods’ approach to corporate social responsibility includes offering discounted seeds to vulnerable women and youth farmers, paying school fees for vulnerable girls, and providing production resources to women without land.
They also train youth and women to use available roots and tubers as nutritious food sources and income-generating opportunities.
By now, Noela’s venture into agriculture has positioned her as a champion and leader in cassava value addition at the local, national, and regional level – and as a champion in the communities she supports. Her next adventure: finally bringing the first cassava-based sausage on the market!
The International Trade Centre’s STAR project, funded by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), has provided Noela with trainings on branding, including logo rebranding efforts, packaging and business presentation. Additionally, the project supported her participation in the 2023 Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) trade show, the largest trade fair in Uganda, giving her network opportunities with potential buyers.
