Abstract

Burkina Faso is a land-locked country in the southern part of the Sahara, where rain falls about three months a year. Approximately 90% of the population are farmers. Income-producing activities are scarce and vegetable products are generally their only source of income. The extraction, marketing, and processing of vegetable oils of varying quality is the main activity. However, extraction and development techniques are rudimentary and do not bring profits. This project will improve these techniques by mechanizing some operations thus reducing the effort and increase the extraction yield. The project will also study certain oil processing techniques, such as the production of soap and other household products. Specifically, it will carry out market studies; develop appropriate oil-extracting technologies; classify the oil; develop new nonedible vegetable oil-based products; and carry out an economic analysis of the activities.

Post-Project Summary

During phase I of this project (89-0075), researchers performed various analyses of the oils available from local seeds, and realized that for an optimum utilization of these resources, a new improved press was needed. The press was designed during this second phase with initial collaboration of the Centre de Recherche Industrielle du Québec (CRIQ) for the calculations and building of the first prototype. Local workshops in Ouagadougou then built at least eight other prototypes, each one improving on the design of the previous one. The prototypes were lent to various women's cooperatives. The opinions and suggestions of the users, and the advantages and disadvantages of each modification were taken into account for the next development. Although the final result was a fairly expensive press, it enabled the utilization of local oil seeds (balanites, Jatropha curca, neem, jujube) as well as peanuts and shea nuts. Some cooperatives specialized in the fabrication of soaps, using a mixture of shea butter and neem oil to obtain a soap with medicinal properties. Other cooperatives sold the cake left after pressing peanuts to make baby food. In general, the cooperatives defined their own strategies for the use of the new press, depending on locally available products and time of members. Support continued in another project to improve the quality of products (002724/96-1006).

Recipient Institution(s)