YAP Proposal #25: “Sustainable Farming of Moringa Trees” (Deep Vijay Dosaja, Kenya)

Tierra Moringa Ltd – The natural health company, is a Kenyan Llc. that works in conjunction with Kenyan farmers in the coastal region (Mida) in an out grower’s scheme, growing the Moringa Oleifera Tree, founded by 31 year old Kenyan entrepreneur Deep Vijay Dosaja.

At Tierra Moringa our objective is to provide the local and international markets with the highest quality natural health and beauty products to help all people live better, healthier, happier lives.

This objective is to be met by creating win-win relationships with the business and all its stakeholders.

Two of the key, yet often ignored stakeholders of a business, the environment and the community at large, are an integral part of Tierra Moringa and its objectives.

At Tierra we provide training programs for registered Tierra Moringa farmers on sustainable, organic farming of the Moringa tree with a strong focus on preserving and protecting the environment. Through the training programs our aim is to enable and encourage Tierra farmers to ensure the highest quality crops of Moringa Leaves and seeds are produced. We are also able to instruct on the indirect benefits of farming Moringa, a new cash crop, such as improved nutrition for the individual and community.

We have broken down our objectives into:

The Product objective, where we will provide our customers with the highest quality, organically grown, natural health and beauty products, with all value-ads and processes Kenyan owned.Offer products free of chemicals, artificial colors, flavours or additives.Continually search for and provide new ways and products to make natural health and beauty easier and more convenient for the customer. Founded on the belief that all our natural Tierra Moringa products will help people live better, happier, healthier lives.

Secondly the social objective, where we firmly believe through the sale of these products we will address a number of sustainable development goals and targets. We believe through the training of local Kenyan farmers on the correct propagation of the Moringa Oleifera tree and other indigenous plants, herbs, trees, spices and through the creation of a sustainable Kenyan, Natural Health and Beauty Company where all the processes and value-adds are fully owned in Kenya, these objectives can be achieved

Our two key targets are to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Secondly to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

With this in mind we have created two social programs within our business model to meet these social objectives through the sales of our natural health and beauty products.

Firstly- from all LOCAL/REGIONAL sales we have created a 1 for 1 model; where with each Tierra Moringa product sold we dedicate to plant 1 Moringa Oleifera tree. Our aim would be to target socially, economically, environmentally fragile areas and with our ‘giving partners’ use it as a tool to combat hunger, malnourishment and soil/environmental degradation.

Secondly- we are strongly focused on principles of Trade not Aid. Our idea is to empower Kenyan farmers by purchasing raw materials at a higher value than what they would receive on the market, due to the perception of the crop locally.

The true strength of trade not aid however occurs once we EXPORT our value added products to higher value markets. This will enable us to work on a profit sharing agreement with the registered Tierra Moringa farmers, who can then build their own communities. This could be primarily implemented through the creation of credit and co-operative societies (Saccos). A microfinance institution where registered Tierra Moringa farmer groups can borrow interest free to run community building projects based on their needs and requirements, with no debt on top.
When implemented correctly trade can be used as a means to sustainably develop rural Kenya and hopefully bring an end to the poverty cycle for a majority of rural farmers, through their own initiatives.

Through the founders personal savings we have developed a demonstration farm, on a 1 acre piece of land, that holds 1156 Moringa Oleifera trees, where we have so far trained 25 farmers on the correct techniques of farming the moringa tree.

We have also built a small processing unit, that houses a diesel run grinding machine to make Moringa powder.

We have passed Kenya bureau of standards tests, and have released Tierra organic moringa tea bags, and Tierra pure organic Moringa leaf powder for the Kenyan market.

Our way to measure success is how many trees we have managed to plant through our 1 for 1 model, buy 1 plant 1. In 10 years, if we have planted 100million Moringa trees, then both our business and social objectives will be well on the way to being met.

With the $5000 grant within a 3 month period we would;

• Process and Pack 2500 (125kg) boxes of Tierra Organic Moringa Tea Bags – Market Value – $6,250
• Process and Pack 2000 (300kg) canisters of Tierra Organic Moringa Powder – Market Value – $9500
• Process and Pack 500 (50kg) bottles of Pure organic moringa oil, for the local cosmetic industry – 8,750$

As all raw materials would be purchased from our registered Tierra Moringa farmers, the approximate total of 5000$ grant going directly to the local farmers would be $2500. Through the sales of the above products we would also be able to plant a further 5000 moringa trees.

We see our work with Moringa as a model which can be replicated and extended to a variety of herbs, trees, spices and plants to create a fully Kenyan owned Natural health and Beauty company, whose purpose is to help all people live better, healthier lives.

Blogpost and illustrations submitted by Deep Vijay Dosaja (Kenya) – deep(at)tierra-moringa.com

The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

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