In the heart of Achinakrom, a new kind of harvest is beginning, one of opportunity, community partnership, and innovation. The inauguration of the Achinakrom Gari Processing and Bakery Centre celebrated a shared dream brought to life by the collaborative spirit of Prof. Joseph Oppong Akowuah and his former students’ start-up companies, including G2Josh Evergreen Company Limited, Smart Farm Technologies, Merejel Ventures, and a colleague, Prof. Faustina Dufie Wireko-Manu, Head, Department of Food Science and Technology, KNUST, and the local community.
This project is a testament to the KNUST College of Engineering’s mission to turn knowledge into action and solve real-world problems. Prof. Joseph Oppong Akowuah, Head of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, who heads the project, spoke about installing food processing machines and the essence of collaboration that brings transformation. He showed the Queen Mother of Achinakrom, Nana Serwaa Akoto, and her elders how the centre will breathe new life into the local community. The biomass dryer, he explained, will preserve maize and cassava quickly and efficiently, locking in quality and slashing post-harvest losses that have long troubled smallholder farmers.
But the vision goes far beyond just drying crops. Also installed are lines for processing cassava into gari, high-quality cassava flour (HCQF) and other products like dried ginger flakes/powder. This is a place where nothing goes to waste. The husks from the maize will fuel the dryers; the peels from the cassava will be converted to feed to nourish animals; and the precious starch recovery from the gari processing will find its way into pharmaceuticals and other products. It’s a closed loop of sustainability where every part of the harvest has a purpose.
Prof. Akowuah shared that the workforce will be a vibrant mix of students gaining hands-on experience and local community members earning a livelihood. He spoke of partnerships with local farmers, who will be encouraged to grow specific cassava varieties, turning their fields into the raw material for high-quality cassava flour, fufu flour and gari, destined for local schools and international exports.
Prof. Akowuah shared that the workforce will be a vibrant mix of students gaining hands-on experience and local community members earning a livelihood. He spoke of partnerships with local farmers, who will be encouraged to grow specific cassava varieties, turning their fields into the raw material for high-quality cassava flour, fufu flour and gari, destined for local schools and international exports.
For Nana Serwaa Akoto, the Queen mother, this promise of jobs and economic vitality was an answered prayer. She thanked the team with genuine warmth and pledged her personal support to promote the centre throughout the township. “This will curb unemployment,” she emphasised, her voice filled with hope. “I will advertise it myself for buying and selling. She said a heartfelt prayer, asking for divine blessing on the venture.
As the tour concluded, samples of well-packaged gari and other products were displayed, tangible proof of the centre’s potential. Hon. Ing. Micheal Adusei Bonsu, a native son of Achinakrom who recently retired as head of the department’s workshop, looked on with pride. He thanked everyone who had supported the project, his words echoing the collective feeling in the room: a long-held vision had finally, wonderfully, become a reality.
