ENEMY'S OF DEVELOPMENT! The impact of gross procrastination...

(PICTURES: some of the beneficiaries of Tapera Industries jatropha project)

Today 07 April 2015, I woke up to work as usual, after waiting for the really long weekend to end (I hate bank holidays, I have a career) I did all the preps to make sure the day is accomplished as planned: get fumigation certificate, get phytosanitary certificate, get export permit, load 30 ton truck, deliver crop to client, smile all the way to the bank. Simple plan, no hustle, I did all my pre preparations over the weekend, what could possibly go wrong?
So I call the fumigator, he's at church, and I think, religious man, trustworthy. So I ask, ' what time will you be here' his response ' I'll have to inform the phyto inspector and get back to you', me baffled, because the phyto inspector is supposed to verify by seeing that the pests are clear of stock. I say 'OK, get back to me when done consulting'. Fumigator calls and says ' the inspector doesn't have transport, can you pick him up?' Reluctantly I say 'YES' it only 15kms away after all. I jump in my truck, don't even have breakfast, straight shot, I drive down to Zambia Agric Research Institute, Musekela. I proceed to locate the inspector, and he says 'oh, you're here, when do you intend to unveil the fumigation?' Politely I say 'Now!', when do you intend to export?' He asks, 'uhm, tomorrow.' Ok he exclaims, 'I'm hosting a field day and can't leave just yet, I can be available after an hour and I'll find my way to the inspection site' All sorts of profanities rattling in my head and I say 'thank you boss, we'll wait your arrival'. That's 09:11 am Tuesday morning.
I proceed back into town to wait, do some errands, make some follow up calls, and really just watch time waste away like a starving child watching the food network. Finally after pressing this gentleman with calls, he shows up at 04:00PM! Signs the simple phytosanitary certificate.
So my 6 step plan reduced to 2, get fumigation certificate and phyto certificate. Because of the 8 hour delay to perform a 5 minute act of verification and certification, the consequences are:
1. the trucker I hired decided to proceed without my cargo, since there were more 'serious' clients ready to go,
2. the export permit process has to be done the next day,
3. the pre clearing arrangement I'd organised at the border has been delayed so our truck will have to join the queue
4. international banking practices take 2 working days to take effect, so will receive payment next week for a consignment delivered tomorrow.
It may seem trivial, especially if you're not in the business world, but here's how the greed of one individual can affect many:
1.Tapera industries employs 3 contracted workers and 15 commissioned workers in eastern province.
2.We work in 5 major districts and buy energy crops from 300 small scale farmers who survive on the cash flow from jatropha sales during the farming off season.
3. We pay company tax and when export, we pay export taxes.
4. When we export, we bring in much needed FOREX into the economy.
5. The energy crops we supply are processed into a biofuel that not only saves the environment, but reduces the cost of living through increased savings on the cost of doing business.
It is common in Zambia for a govt official to frustrate a simple process in order to get one to pay a bribe, to get the officer to do their job more efficiently, maybe coming to 20 USD. But the real impact of todays procrastination was 18 employees won't get paid on time, over 300 households will desperately wait for the Tapera truck to return, revenue services won't get taxes on time to implement government projects, much needed FOREX will be stuck else where, cost of living for thousands of people won't improve.
Consider this situation for millions of business across africa, how government officials can frustrate a simple process so they can eat petty money for a day while they watch the world decay in the filth of corruption.
I'm just 1 business man, let's say no to procrastination and corruption!
WashingtonFellow2014 | BiofuelsExpert | Zambia
Skype: toba851

30 Tons and counting

The last month has seen a leap in energy crop aggregation for my team and I. Tapera Industries has made strides in fulfilling an obligation to our clients Bio Energy Resource Limited, who process the energy crop into biofuels and organic fertilizer.
With this growing demand for energy crops, It can only be positive outlook for the SSF's who will have an alternate income instead to waiting for the food crop harvest season.
With my team, we managed to pull together 30 Metric tons of jatropha seed from over 300 farmers working with us.
We expect to double that tonnage by the end of April.
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Toba
WashingtonFellow2014 | BiofuelsExpert | Zambia
Skype: toba851

My version of poverty alleviation...

Access to cheap, clean and sustainable energy in rural areas and community based industries. I run a green tech business which has operations in rural Zambia, eastern province. Our primary work there is to collect energy crops from small scale farmers which we transport to major cities for processing into biofuels and biomass energy. Even though the SSF's receive payment for the energy crops, the lack of facilities to provide energy driven products like cheap transportation or cleaner burning charcoal alternatives, leaves the rural dwellers generally in the same economic and social situation that we try to improve upon. The main aggregation hub we work in, Chadiza, has for a long time been exploited by industry for its agriculture food production, as some of the hardest working farmers are in this region. Despite the attention from big city dwellers, the area lacks basic essentials such as transport fuel, bathing soap, cooking oil, which are considered a luxury in most households. Because fuels is scarce in the area, the residents pay upto 3 times more for the same comodity that city dwellers take for granted. The most affected populations in the areas are young and old women because the have to equally work to take care of the family, but go on further to subsidize the male counterparts efforts in covering the costs. 90% of the marketeers are women who have to come together to hire transport to the market, hence have to balance covering the costs of delivering produce to market as well as feed the family.My proposal is to establish small communtiy based industries. When raw materials are harvested from these areas, they are processed in the urban area, and the final product is transported back to the rural area, making it too expensive for majority of houshold. In line with Zambia's 6th National development plan, I would like to setup community based industries to process biodiesel and natural soap from Jatropha oil, sunflower cooking oil from sunflower seed, mango juice from mango fruit.
Jatropha trees in the rural area grow as a perennial tree which contiually produces and oil bearing seed which can be crushed to expel vegetable oils, which can be processed into a diesel fuel supplement as well as natural bath/washing soap. This industry will help reduce the cost of transport to markets and use of diesel powered processing in the area and provide a cheaper source for hygiene in the rural areas from soap production and sales,
The area also boasts of some of the highest yielding sunflower harvests in the country but all the sunflower seed is transported to urban areas and sold back to the rural areas in bottles; localising the processing of the sunflower seed will see the region benefit from the sell of cooking oil locally at much cheaper prices than if transported from the urban area as well as the sell of the high value seed cake for animal farming feed. The combined value of the oil and the cake is 3 times the value of the sunflower seed, asa well as the jobs created around the processing.
Mango trees in the eastern province supply majority of the fruit sold in the major Zambia cities. Despite the large quantites of fruit produced annually, there is still no processing facility in the province, while millions of dollars worth of mango fruit juice are imported every year. I propose to start processing on a small level to suppny the surround ing towns with the juice through the setting up of low cost community based and run processing facilities. This industry will create jobs and an economy in an underutilised inventory, and reduce dependency on traditional cash crops.
My proposal is to establish small communtiy based industries. When raw materials are harvested from these areas, they are processed in the urban area, and the final product is transported back to the rural area, making it too expensive for majority of houshold. In line with Zambia's 6th National development plan, I would like to setup community based industries to process biodiesel and natural soap from Jatropha oil, sunflower cooking oil from sunflower seed, mango juice from mango fruit.
Jatropha trees in the rural area grow as a perennial tree which contiually produces and oil bearing seed which can be crushed to expel vegetable oils, which can be processed into a diesel fuel supplement as well as natural bath/washing soap. This industry will help reduce the cost of transport to markets and use of diesel powered processing in the area and provide a cheaper source for hygiene in the rural areas from soap production and sales,
The area also boasts of some of the highest yielding sunflower harvests in the country but all the sunflower seed is transported to urban areas and sold back to the rural areas in bottles; localising the processing of the sunflower seed will see the region benefit from the sell of cooking oil locally at much cheaper prices than if transported from the urban area as well as the sell of the high value seed cake for animal farming feed. The combined value of the oil and the cake is 3 times the value of the sunflower seed, asa well as the jobs created around the processing.
Mango trees in the eastern province supply majority of the fruit sold in the major Zambia cities. Despite the large quantites of fruit produced annually, there is still no processing facility in the province, while millions of dollars worth of mango fruit juice are imported every year. I propose to start processing on a small level to suppny the surround ing towns with the juice through the setting up of low cost community based and run processing facilities. This industry will create jobs and an economy in an underutilised inventory, and reduce dependency on traditional cash crops.
So far we have worked on aggregating the jatropha seed from the rural SSF's which has seen there incomes rise and there vulnerability to fall into the debt trap reduced. Before I worked with the small scale farmers, they only had their crops to sale at harvest time in may to august, the period from january to may leaves them vulnerable to situations such as contract selling of their produce to briefcase business men, who would buy the crop at less than 25% of the market value simply because the farmers had a need for the money at that particular point.
Through the efforts of my team and I, we now buy energy crops from the vulnerable women during the months of january to june, hence they are not desperate to sale their produce at mediocre prices.
We have also taken an initaitive to start raising funds and look for partners to start the soap processing in one area that we have identified to have the potential commercialise the soap production.
Another project I'm lead on in Zambia is a charcoal from grass project which we have been allocated funds from the US Embassy Zambia Alumni grants. This project will focus on training 30 young men and women on the production of charcoal using locally available resources that are environmentally friendly; whilst generating a sustainable income for the participants.
If this makes sense to you, reach out to mutoban@taperabio.com, let's talk!
WashingtonFellow2014 | BiofuelsExpert | Zambia
Skype: toba851