Green Dreams Organic Farming in East Africa

We’re applying for a grant through a competition,…………….this is what we hope to do with the $200,000 if we win!!

Organic Value Addition Center- Pilot

Value addition is without a doubt one of the ways to increase earnings at individual and community level. However, the challenges to do so are many

1) Lack of knowledge of the possibilities of different value addition methods
2) Lack of knowledge on the value added final products
3) Lack of knowledge on the labelling and packaging possibilities
4) Lack of knowledge of the packaging and labelling statutory requirements
5) Lack of knowledge of market hygiene and other standards
6) Lack of knowledge on statutory marketing requirements
7) Lack of knowledge on the costs related to value addition
.8) Lack of knowledge of how to formulate a business plan
9) Lack of knowledge on how to access capital
10) Lack of knowledge on the market possibilities both nationally and internationally.

The Organic Value Addition Center Pilot (OVAC-P) sets out to lead small scale organic farmers, or entrepreneurs through the various stages mentioned above, whilst allowing the beneficiaries to enter the value chain at any level.

The center will consist of premises where under a single roof, a multitude of options and experts will be available to assist the small scale organic farmer from raw material to final product phase and/or help him to achieve a preconceived objective.

The center will have various stations equipped with machinery to carry out the training, and will also be certified by a local and international certification body. Because it will essentially be a fully functional production facility, the center will also act as a small production house.

Sustainability can therefore be achieved through income generating activities, including sale of processed products. Other income generating activities would include training fees, labelling, hourly hire of machinery, purchase of packaging, consultancy fees for areas of customised expert assistance.

Different aspects of the training may be outsourced especially in the beginning as the center develops to afford full time in-house experts.

Examples:

1. A farmer comes into the center with a raw material; e.g., mangoes, and leaves with knowledge on how to produce a variety of value-added products; e.g., mango chutney, mango juice, dried mango, mango concentrate, mango baby food, dried mango bits for cereal, dried pet food etc. The farmer also leaves with knowledge on how to package his value-added product, source markets for his products and a business plan that will allow him to seek financing for production for either wholesale or retail.

2. A farmer may also come to the center with ideas for value-added products, but only requires information and assistance with art design and labelling.

3. Similarly, the farmer may come to the center with a fully completed value-added product, but seeking organic markets for the same.

Once the training Center has developed through its pilot stage, the model can be replicated in different regions throughout the country and elsewhere.

The model is not limited to the organic arena and can also be replicated in the conventional world.

The situation to date:

Currently there is no facility of this kind in the country, and furthermore there is very little value added organic produce on the local markets. The opportunities for the small scale farmer to access markets with value added organic products is thus the logical direction of growth for the organic industry.

Horticultural Crop Development Authority developed a series of pack houses around the country to be used by farmers. These facilities operate fresh produce mainly for export, thus due to economies of scale lock out the small scale farmers who remain the raw material supply of the larger exporters supply chain. Most of the facilities are rented on a yearly basis by these exporters, prohibiting the inclusion of use by small scale farmers. Those that currently stand idle in the country do so due to logistics. Some do not have cold storage and are too far away from the raw material source and the airports.

None of the HCDA centers teach or train or include any type of value addition other than fresh produce handling and packaging.

The development of the OVAC’s will open a wide area of agricultural competence and entrepreneurial agri driven business in the country, empowering the small scale producer to increase his income and thus quality of life.

As the main prototype will be for small scale organic producers, there will also be demand for a larger production of organic raw materials. This will add to the growth of the organic industry.

We’ve asked Biovision to partner with us, and if they agree, hope The Organic Farmer magazine will be used to disseminate the information about the center and it’s operations.
Last year Biovision launched a wonderful product Infonet. An internet site about organic solutions to pest and disease problems in the tropics. As our farmers become more computer literate, we will encourage them to use the web site that will be developed for the center.

Fingers crossed…………..

Met with Claudia and Pierluigi of Global Farm Products today to discuss the record keeping format for the potato project. The project hopes to teach farmers how to plan and plant consistently according to market demand using a time line as a guide. The project was an idea I had developed and asked assistance from KOAN as I felt the farmers needed help to get out of the ad hoc production system they all seemed to follow.
Last year whilst in Switzerland (with Biovision) I discovered the Swiss farmers were expected to have a minimum two years of agricultural training before being able to farm the land as recognised farmers. The understanding of the word ‘farmer’ was thus different from our african farmer counterparts who would I discovered be call ‘feld man’ or field hands. The difference is also in that in Switzerland it seems farmers made a concious decision to farm, in kenya many farmers are farmers like me, simply by default. Have land will farm.
There is therefore a huge need for training in everything from production, marketing, value addittion etc

So the potato project is meant to achieve its objective using one product for ease of training etc. My greatest worry is that if we get it right we will have a mountain of organic potatoes to market come the end of the year!!

The idea is also to develop a streamlined system between the market and the farmers so as to minimise risk and frustration at both ends. I would like to be able to tap into information on the expected volumes of production of my supply chain at any point in time. The farmers would like to know the requirements and prices of various products too. Currently, ………there is no real system. Pierluigi and Claudia will be responsible for making sure of the information flow. To do this we need to develop some sort of template the farmers can fill on a weekly basis, compute and send to Global Farm Products. An ambitious undertaking, but not impossible. GFP will then crunch the numbers and either feed the information up and down the supply chain or have it readily available for the stakeholders, being the market, the farmers, the certification body EnCert, KOAN and HIVOS, (a Dutch NGO funding the project)

So far the initial 3 day planning stage has resulted in the farmers being traind on time lines. Then as they should have been starting planning for implementation in Jan 08, we had the messy elections. It may therefore take a while for the project to get back on course and meanwhile, we are trying to develop the templates. More later………..