News

With a broad smile and a renewed sense of pride, Mrs. Kadokali Ebiro shows us her pigsty as she tells her life story. This 47-year-old widow talks about the positive impact that the improved rice parboiling kits provided by PPAAO Togo have had on her life, and on Vaillantes Femmes, the women's group to which she belongs.

After her husband's death, Ebiro was involved in small businesses, including selling sand and charcoal to support her four children. The income generated by these activities was not enough to support her and her family. Looking for better options, she joined Vaillantes Femmes in 2007. This group of women was involved in traditional rice parboiling. At the time, they recorded a loss of six kilograms on each 100 kg bag of parboiled paddy rice. They could only process three 100 kg bags per day, and made a modest profit of 7,500 FCFA (15 USD) per day.

With the improved parboiling kit offered by PPAAO Togo in 2014, Vaillantes Femmes increased its profits by 211% and diversified its activities. Ebiro now manages to pay her children's school fees easily. In 2015, one of her children graduated from the University of Lomé with a degree in Management.

Mrs. Ebiro started raising pigs with her share of the profits. Their nutrition has also improved. Typically, in poor rural households in Togo and across Africa, rice is consumed sparingly. This is no longer the case at Ebiro. They often eat parboiled rice.

Ebiro is president of Femmes Vaillantes. Their collective ambition is to create a modern rice parboiling center that will further increase the income of the association's members.

Since December 2011, PPAAO Togo has been at the forefront of generating and promoting technologies capable of meeting the nutritional needs of the population and ensuring food security. PPAAO Togo has purchased ten rice cookers and shared them with women's groups producing parboiled rice across the country.