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Aliti Mere was a sugarcane farmer for more than a decade. Through the PIRAS project, she and other women farmers from the Marinitawa Cluster attended food processing training on ways to make their own flour from cassava and jams from seasonal fruits.
“I’ve learned a lot from this food processing training organized by Rise Beyond the Reef, during the pandemic price for flour increased and I’m thankful that I now know how to make my own flour from cassava which saves me a lot of money to purchase other basic items for my family.” says Aliti.
During the pandemic, the Marinitawa Cluster came together to assist Aliti Mere in planting turmeric, cassava, and a little bit of Saccharum edule locally known as duruka.
She hopes to shift from being a subsidiary farmer to a semi-commercial farmer with the opportunity to export turmeric and other products to the US market. The PIRAS project aims to assist farmers with post-harvest handling, food processing, and access to the market to accelerate their recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.