LocationsFrom Farm to Market: IFAD, UNDP, and Kastam Garden Empower Gizo Vendors with Flour-Based Innovation
October 8, 2025
Gizo, Solomon Islands —Through the Markets for Change (M4C) Project, a collaboration between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and local champion Kastam Garden is revolutionizing small-scale enterprise in Gizo Market. This week, 30 market vendors and farmers are undergoing intensive value addition and food processing training, unlocking new pathways for income generation and food security.
The training, led by the Gizo Market Vendors Association executives who completed a four-day Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop in July 2025, focuses on transforming locally available produce such as cassava, turmeric, and banana into high-value chips, flour products that can be used in cooking or sold in the market.
Food Safety Matters
Food safety isn't just a health requirement but a business enabler. For market vendors and small-scale food processors, understanding and applying food safety principles can unlock new opportunities, build customer trust, and ensure long-term sustainability. During the opening of the four days workshop, the Ministry of Health’s Environmental Health Department in Gizo conducted a dedicated two-hour session on food safety compliance and licensing requirements. This session provided vendors with essential knowledge on hygiene standards, safe food handling, and the steps required to obtain formal licenses for food-based businesses ensuring that their products meet regulatory standards and are safe for public consumption.
Flour Power: Local Crops, Big Impact
The Markets for Change Project through its partnership with IFAD and Kustams Garden, supported the capacity building trainings for market vendors on Value Addition and Food Safety ensuring that market vendors are supported especially women with training in food processing, packaging, and business skills. In addition, it focuses on promoting the use of local produce (e.g., cassava, turmeric, banana) to create market-ready products and to avoid wastage in the markets and farms.
The four days training focused on turning traditional crops into high-value flour products:
- Cassava flour for gluten-free baking and cooking
- Turmeric flour for health-conscious consumers and traditional dishes
- Banana flour for naturally sweet, nutritious alternatives in snacks and desserts
Participants engaged in hands-on demonstrations, learning preservation techniques, packaging and labeling, sterilization practices, and cooking with processed ingredients like root crop flour in pancakes, cakes, and bread.
30 market vendors and farmers are undergoing intensive value addition and food processing training.
What is so unique about this workshop, is that the vendors get to learn by doing it through practical exercise. Instead of just listening to lectures or reading manuals, vendors are actively engaging in hands-on demonstrations: peeling cassava, drying bananas, grinding turmeric, sterilizing jars, labeling packages, and cooking with their own processed ingredients. This approach builds confidence, muscle memory, and real-world skills that stick. The practical exercises provide an opportunity for the market vendors to practice food preservation techniques using their own local produce. They experiment with flour-making from cassava, banana, and turmeric seeing firsthand how texture, moisture, and taste vary. They cook and taste their creations, learning how to adjust recipes and improve quality.
With guidance from the Ministry of Health, vendors don’t just hear about hygiene—they demonstrate sterilization, proper handwashing, and safe packaging. They walk through the licensing process with real examples, making it less intimidating and more achievable.
Reflection sessions allow vendors to share what worked, what didn’t, and how they’ll apply these skills in their stalls. They leave with not just knowledge, but products they’ve made themselves, ready to test in the market.
Driving Inclusive Growth and Resilient Livelihoods
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) share a vision and commitment to empowering rural communities, promoting food security, and promoting inclusive economic development. Their partnership is particularly impactful in the Pacific region, where small island economies face unique challenges related to climate change, market access, and sustainable livelihoods. Both organizations prioritize shared visions:
- Poverty reduction through community-led enterprise
- Gender equality and women's economic empowerment
- Climate resilience and sustainable agriculture
- Inclusive market systems that benefit informal vendors and producers
Voices from the Market
This week’s Value Adding Training has sparked a wave of inspiration and practical transformation among market vendors and farmers in Gizo. Participants shared how the training deepened their understanding and equipped them with new skills to reduce waste, increase income, and make the most of local produce.
- Mary Saragona, Vice Treasurer of the Gizo Market Vendors Association, expressed renewed confidence in enhancing the value of fruits sold at the market.
- Dorlyn Tivikera, Sector Leader for Fruits and Vegetables, was inspired to create products like jams and chutneys, maximizing the use of available resources.
- Jamica Tanito, a market vendor, learned how to turn pineapple and pawpaw into delicious jams, boosting her earnings while minimizing waste.
- Peter Uten, a first-time trainee, discovered the concept of value addition through transforming ginger into powdered tea.
- Julie Mesepitu, a Kastom Garden farmer, found hope in preserving her harvest despite challenging weather by making pawpaw jam.
- Natasha Paul, also attending for the first time, gained hands-on experience in making jam, chutney, and virgin coconut oil.
This training has not only built resilience, creativity, and a stronger sense of community among Gizo’s market vendors and farmers showcasing a story of partnership, tradition, and progress where global support meets grassroots ingenuity, and every locally produced flour bag tells a story of empowerment.
M4C is a regional initiative aimed at improving the economic security and working conditions of women market vendors in Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. M4C focuses on strengthening market infrastructure, vendor capacity, and gender equality to create more sustainable and inclusive marketplaces.
The M4C project is implemented by UN Women in partnership with UNDP and with support from the Government of Australia.
For more information, please contact:
Jilgina Kimisi, Markets for Change Project Associate, Solomon Islands on email – jilgina.kimisi@undp.org or Vilisi Veibataki, Markets for Change Project Manager, UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji | vilisi.veibataki@undp.org | +679 3227701
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