KOFAr Ltd: Soil repairs in rural Kenya Sagana, Kenya Year Founded: 2011 Organization type: for profit Project Stage: Growth Budget: $250,000 - $500,000 Website: http://www.kofarltd.com Business Income generation Marketing Social enterprise Recycling Climate change Environment Green business Project SummaryElevator Pitch Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences. KOFAr manufactures and sells natural soil conditioners and processed vegetative compost that reverses soil acidity, unlocks nutrients increases microbial activity and boosts moisture retention in rural Kenya. WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?" What if Kenyan farmers through healthy soils can produce quality foods with zero or acceptable chemical residues? About Project Problem: What problem is this project trying to address? KOFAr is addressing the increasing decline in production of quality food per unit area affecting our farmers through rectifying the damaged soils. We are increasing farming profitability in rural Kenya. Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific! We manufacture and sell natural soil conditioner and processed vegetative compost that reverses soil acidity, unlocks nutrients, increases microbial activities and boost moisture retention so that the crop can produce the best and high nutritious produce in high yields per season. This increases both food and income for the farmers and the traders and provides healthier foods to the consumers both in the local and export market. Awards SEED Initiative in 2011, Sinapis group award in 2011, Top 100 in Enablis entreprenuer award in 2012, 1st runners up in Horti-2015 competition and the next Ashoka SIE Fellow. Impact: How does it Work Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities. The processed compost we sell to the farmers is disease free and balanced to handle all types of soils in Kenya. 50kg of our compost costs the farmer $32 per acre and replaces 17tons of manure that costs $350 for the same area size/. The soil conditioner costs between $20 and $70 depending with the soil state per acre. This KOFAr soil repair package reduces the cost of farming, increases soil fertility and gains over 50% higher quality yields for the farmer. Coffee farmers saw their trees produce 14kgs per tree up from 2kgs within 2yrs. Fine beans farmers increased yields with 70% and reduced pest & disease inputs with 50%. Rice, Wheat & Maize farmers got healthy crops through out the season and harvested 50% more. Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years. Our products have been verified by Kenyan government research bodies and passed. Again so far we have over 1000 farmers using our products and intend to have over 1million by December 2017 and with your support. By 2020 we should have over 10million Kenyan farmers using our products and roll in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia and Ethiopia. Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact? We intend to use the main stream media. That is radio, television and newspapers to reach many Kenyans and influence change. This will create awareness on the connection between healthy soils and quality food produce. After we grow in Kenya through distributors and stockists in the rural areas and get partners we intend to roll out in the neighbouring countries. Sustainability Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability? KOFAr is actively looking for investors willing to buy equity in our company and inject working and growth capital as well as growth partners who can provide grants or support services that can lead to more sales and more farmers knowing us. We manufacture effective and affordable products that farmers can buy at a profit margin from us. Our sustainability is highly pegged on massive sales to the farmers. Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches? There are a few other companies selling organic fertilizers. Our package is different in that from the word go we started all our trials on both cleaning the soils and increasing the fertility. Most of the other competitors have one or the other. Team Founding Story After discovering that the more than 30 varieties of fruits and vegetables were no longer growing in my mothers farm where I grew up I got curious and asked why. My mother said that they were attacked by diseases and just dried up. A few are still growing. I researched and got that with soil acidity and locked up nutrients the crops were easy targets by pests and diseases. I checked out for who else was affected and discovered that 90% of arable land in Kenya has soil issues. I teamed up with local and international scientists and came up with the KOFAr soil repair package suitable for all soil types in Kenya and beyond. With this came up with a business concept that can change Africa. Team We have 5Board of Directors, 4 people in the management team and 4 junior staff. In Management we have professionals in Marketing, Operations, Human resource and Finance. In the junior staff we have sales reps, office assistant and a driver.
