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With rural Africans we explore their ideas for innovative ventures and bring them to the point where they become investable start-ups. Have a look at how we go about it at Scouting and Active Ventures.

General News

We have started a Blog, click here
For those who want to keep up to date even while we are travelling in Tanzania, we have put in a Blog. You may engage and ask questions there, if you like. Or simply stay informed about what is going on at a regular week-by-week (or even day-to-day) level. Feel free to ask questions and comment!

What is Transaction Security Services?
TSS is the business case of Tanzania Biashara Mapema, one of the partners whose ventures farip is supporting. An interesting game-changing approach to agriculture marketing. See here for details.

TBM is milling dona and selling in Daressalaam

Because of low price of maize grains, TBM decided to already now try the farmers idea to mill the maize in the silos to wholegrain flour (“Dona” in Swahili) and sell it to low-income people in Daressalaam. The vijikweli brand is registered for this, and first batches are presently being marketed through a small outlet in a low-income area of Daressalaam. Read more…..

 Marketing of maize grains is difficult this year
Because the price of maize is low this year, farmers have suggested to already now attempt to mill it and sell it as dona (wholegrain flour) directly to retail shops in the cities (see here). Calculations have shown that this may allow to avoid a loss. Bahat Tweves TBM is now emptying the 100 silos as fast as possible and selling grains to the best buyer. But 30tons are held back for processing into flour. The next harvest is to be filled into the silos again in August-September.
TBMs original plans to expand the number of silos must therefore be postponed. They want to concentrate on the dona effort with the existing silos. This actually makes sense, as it allows farmers and TBM to benefit from added value along the whole value chain. And it also makes sense as a buffer to the obviously volatile maize prices.
We are now looking for funding for the dona effort and for expanding the number of silos only to cover the local demand.
Read more…
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Spiegel-Bazaar in Bern finances first step towards Pesanane Farmer Forestry School

The committee of the Spiegel-Bazaar in Bern decided to support a small proposal from farip with the incomes they made from this charitable bazaar in November. Rajipas nursery shall be supported so he can build it up and take up his activity as a first Mtunza Misitu  (forest steward) in the Mgololo area. This is the first small and exciting step towards the vision of farmers for establishing the Pesanane Farmer Forestry School in Mgololo.
Read more…
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CHARBRIQUETTES

The new extruder works!! Chardust briketting has picked up.
Big amounts of chardust (charcoal dust made from biomass without cutting a tree) have been purchased and stored in Magunguli. Now a new briketting machine is introduced and tested by EFCO. farip is involved on the sides, particularly for building the business of TSS with charbrikets.

The very first buyer of charbrikets! And the new product packed in wooden crates  Read more….

Beans packaging is again moving
We had to put the venture with Adelinas beans packaging on hold because the packaging and marketing didn’t work as expected. Now in the meantime three women have joined to form a small company "Beanspackers". farip is supporting them with a minor loan to purchase the equipment and start packing beans for sale in small sachets on the market. This is a new kind of product and they are testing it. Also TBM is involved in running the marketing chain
 Read more….

Scouting:
- Scheduled Cargo Services (for rural areas)
- Trees as collateral for credits
- Outlet networks for BOP consumers (bottom of the pyramid)
- Make ice in the village
- Make tough tarpaulins for drying etc, out of discarded truck tarpaulins
- Make blower for winnowing grains
- etc….
Read more….