Neina Naginpoan, a female small-scale farmer in northern Ghana, did her own experimentation with a local dish “wasawasa”, traditionally made from steamed yam flour, and made it instead from maize flour and powder from the yellow pulp of the dawadawa (Parkia biglobosa) fruit. She sells the food to schoolchildren and on the local market. Neina and some neighbouring women worked together with a female nutrition expert from the University of Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale and a female expert in Women in Agricultural Development and a male extension officer from the Yendi Municipal Department of Agriculture to experiment with different variations on her innovation. They sought to overcome difficulties of scarcity of dawadawa at certain times of the year and to improve the nutritional value of the dish. This 10-page report describes the process of participatory innovation development (PID) on the local food innovation.
