Expansion

The last few weeks have been a blast. After receiving substantial donations to sponsor more farmers, we have been scrambling to put them into action.

As mentioned, we have improved our selection process a lot since the first round, two years ago. We’ve learned to pay attention to the red flags early, and protect our (and our donors’) investments accordingly. This extra caution has already paid off, and out of several potential partners, by a process of ruthless elimination, we’ve happily landed three new members of our team. Here’s how that went:

First of all, we put the word out that we were looking for new partners. Of course, this draws plenty of attention because who doesn’t love free stuff? Then we arranged interviews at a convenient time, in a slightly less convenient place – our headquarters, here in Isunga. In order to make it to the interview, people would have to pay a little for their transport and arrive here on time. Immediately, the number of potential candidates dropped to a handful. From this handful, we got really good vibes from 4, and although the donations were only intended to cover three, at this point we were considering stretching materials and adding a few of our empty hives to recruit them all. We visited their land, and helped them pick a spot for the apiary. Then we left them with some simple instructions on how to prepare the space for their new hives. These involved basic tasks like flattening the ground, planting a fence perimeter, or cutting a clear path in order to reach the area comfortably while suited up. Three weeks later, we returned to check on their progress. Three of the farmers had shown strong initiative, clearing the space, and erecting frames or stands for the hives. One had not lifted a finger until that same morning and showed limited interest in our suggestions for improvement. So the process works, and we remain with three tried and tested individuals whom we are optimistic about. The agreements were happily signed the same day, and suits and hives were provided in return.

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New farmers aren’t the only thing we’re adding. Last month I mentioned that this season was bad for honey. As such, we’re left in a tight spot, with little to sell, and a whole bunch of disappointed stakeholders who had been expecting more from their two years of hard work. We had been considering expanding our product range, and now seems like a good time to divert resources into this. Without realising it, we’ve already done a bit of the R&D: we’ve been experimenting with different coffee processing methods for a while now, after buying the fresh cherries from Andrew, one of our pioneer farmers. We’ve got a decent process down, and we think it’s good enough to sell to our guests here at the AirBnB, and maybe to some anyone else who want to help support us.

We’ve also been experimenting with tea. Black tea is readily available and cheap here, but green tea is harder to find and costs a lot more. We’ve made a few batches ourselves, and are happy with the results. The next step will be to train our farmers in our desired process, and buy the finished product from them. What makes tea and coffee particularly appealing is that they are buffer crops. What this means, as with our honey, selling them provides support to our three key goals: Improving local livelihoods, protecting primary forest resources and reducing human-wildlife conflict. The last two, they accomplish by being particularly disgusting to elephants. The very attributes we enjoy in these plants are the same things elephants don’t, and it just so happens that many of our farmers are already growing these crops for that reason.

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So the plan for this season is to improve our processes to make the best green tea this side of Kampala. Coffee is a tougher market to break into, but I think we will get some loyal customers, at least. Meanwhile, we will also be concentrating on expanding and improving the apiaries of our new and current farmers, as well as developing our maintenance practices to set ourselves up for a much better yield next season. We want to give more people some great opportunities to improve their situation here, and we are realising that we could need more than just honey to achieve this. Diversifying our product range should bring more security to everyone’s revenue streams, so we’re looking forward to presenting our new products as soon as they’re ready.

Finally, we are trying out a newsletter format, to cover the progress of the individuals we’re working with. This will initially be aimed at sponsors of farmers, or people who have contributed substantially to the progress of the project, but we might open it up to more people if it goes well.