Moringa Farm-Cooperative in West-Africa
Crowdfunding finished
With local farmers in Liberia, we organise a cooperative producing organic Moringa for the local market and for export.
Naming it "Grace Blue Planet Inc.", we´ve established a corporate umbrella which allows us to operate agricultural, export, wholesale and retail business in Liberia. We make use of this by cooperating with local farmers in the production of organic Moringa for the local market and for export. We hope this succeeds to be a small contribution to the development of the country, which still has problems to recover from 25 destructive years of civil war (1989 - 2004).
Funding period
2/13/17 -
4/12/17
Realisation
June 2017 to December 2018
Minimum amount (Start level): €
8,000 €
City
Monrovia
Category
Agriculture
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What is this project all about?
Our Concept:
Local farmers grow the Moringa tree, harvest the leaves and pre-dry them. Grace Blue Planet Inc. buys the harvest for a fixed price, takes care of the final drying, grinding, packaging and shipping. After the harvest is successfully sold, the remaining profit is paid out as bonus to the producers. Grace Blue Planet Inc. shares its know-how, provides the financing of a pilot-farm and the means of production for the entire project, and it pays for the organic certification according to EU-standards.
Social Component:
a part of the payments to the producers (ca.30%) is paid into a social fund, to which the family chiefs - that is: the men - have no direct access.This part of the sales is reserved for the support of families covering expenses like school-fees and hospital-bills, or for the financing of communal projects. All those participating in the production and their spouses will discuss and decide how to spend these funds on an annual meeting. At least one representative of Grace Blue Planet Inc. will attend these meetings and monitor the implementation of the decisions.
Why Moringa?
Moringa oleifera is a tropical tree, which within 4 months after sowing is rooted firmly enough to go on without any special care. It survives on barren, sandy soil, all it needs is space to grow roots downwards, so it doesn´t favour rocky ground. A Moringa tree is resistant, lives and produces up to 30 years. Planting and maintaining Moringa requires only limited resources, on the other hand, there is a growing demand for it in Europe, where powdered Moringa-leaves are sold as premium health-food-supplement. That makes Moringa an opportunity for farmers in Africa, with very limited financial resources, to start with a valuable product into the export market, otherwise hardly an option.
What is the project goal and who is the project for?
One aspect is, of course, bringing a reasonable product on the European market for food-conscious people.On the other hand, and of equal importance to us, there are the local producers in Liberia. We hope our project will generate income in rural areas in the country. Liberia needs a lot more of initiatives like this. Rural exodus due to lack of perspectives empties the villages there, while the capital Monrovia overflows with impoverished rural refugees. Matter of fact, our small initiative can just make a small contribution to change this. But maybe we succeed to motivate others, and some day there will be more of our type.
Why would you support this project?
People who know and appreciate Moringa or those whose interest we have stirred up now may support us without regrets, because fine Moringa-powder and Moringa-oil out of our first harvest will be delivered to you as gratification. More important to us are supporters who take interest in developments on the African continent and take this as an opportunity to participate in a small but sustainable and fair project on the ground.
How will we use the money if the project is successfully funded?
When we began planning, we hoped to start up the entire project with our own financial resources. In 2 years of exploring, practical tests and expert-consulting we learnt that we would need a bit more than expected. Specifically, the processing of the harvest for export is more complex. Due to the perennial high humidity, we need to build a solid storehouse with a heated drying-shop instead of a formerly projected cheap open drying-hut. The building will cost about 10.000,- US Dollar. We shall use the money of this campaign for it. We hope to finish the building in June/July 2017.
Who are the people behind the project?
Grace Blue Planet Inc. are:
Reinhard Krause, Hamburg:
after graduating in English literature at Hamburg University in the mid-80s, I started the usual career in the taxi-business. I began working in a collective, later I ran my own taxi-business. I gained basic experience of democratic work-structures in cooperatives while taking an active part in the Hamburg radio-taxi-cooperative das taxi e.G. from 1988 to 2016, 2008 - 2010 as chairman of the board. At the same time I followed my growing interest in Africa. 1988 - 1994, I traveled to Senegal/Gambia, Mali, Kenya, repeatedly to Tanzania, and Ghana. 1995 - 1997, I lived in Ghana taking part in the start-up of a German-Ghanain center for cultural exchange. In 1996 I met my wife Tina who, together with her daughter, took refuge in Ghana after fleeing from the civil war in her home Liberia. In 1997 we traveled to Liberia in search of Tina´s son, with whom she had lost contact during the chaos of war and flight. We found him after 2 weeks and could take him with us. In passing, we got an impression of Liberia in the interim-war-period: Charles Taylor posed as president, the country was full of ECOMOG troops and Taylor´s rogues in police uniforms. Hardly anything else was moving between the war-ruins of Monrovia. We left the country feeling pessimistic. In 1999, we got married in Abidjan (Ivory Coast). It took another 5 years before we could begin building a roof and a living for the family in Liberia. Since 2014, we´ve been working on the idea of our farm-project.
Tina Jappah, Hamburg:
In 1990 the war breaking into the city of Monrovia took her by surprise and cut her off from her family. She made it walking on her own all the way to Ivory Coast and went on from there to Ghana. There she found her daughter Doris who had reached Accra on a different route. We met there in 1996, and since then we belong together. Here in Hamburg, Tina is member of the choir at the English Church, and she sings with the German-African band Kekso & Tery Kafo
Benetta Smith, Monrovia:
Tina´s senior sister. For years after 1990, the two did not know if the other one had survived the chaos. It was in 1999, on the day after our wedding party, which apparently made it as talk of the day in the Liberian community of Abidjan, when Benetta finally tracked us down. Since then she has been our faithful partner and has taken our side fighting our way through some hard times of the past years.
With us from the first days of practical tests on the farm:
Obed Nyemah, Bomi-Hills: Tina´s junior brother
Friends and Supporters by Advice and Active Help:
Edouard van Diem, Permakultur-Campus, Hamburg, www.permakultur-campus.de
Heinrich Heinrichs & Meinolf Kuper, Africrops, Berlin, www.africrops.de
Reinhard Hornung & Inge Altemeier, Globalfilm Productions, Hamburg, www.globalfilm.de
Mario Menzerolf & Dagmar Taubert, Restaurant Biodito, Hamburg, www.biodito.de
We´ve been inspired by:
Barbara Simonsohn, Moringa - der essbare Wunderbaum, Verlag Andreas Kraus, 2012
Reinhard & Tina & Benetta
Denis (co-founder of Startnext)
