Événements

This internal meeting was hosted by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and moderated by UNIQUE Forestry and Land Use Gmbh. The overall objective of the session was to exchange experiences on soil restoration as a part of low-emissions development (LED) and create connections to collaborate on future projects.

Business cases that support soil restoration were explored and the session included overviews of the businesses, challenges faced, and how lessons could be transferred. Businesses included KOFAR Kenya Ltd (KOFAR), BioFutura and new technical options developed by Mohamed VI Polytechnic University.

Key insights

• Certifications and documentation are a huge challenge for small entrepreneurs and can delay scaling progress.
• Partnerships with technical organizations are key to designing products and conducting product trials.
• There are tradeoffs from serving small clients and investing in innovative products, especially financially.
• Buyers are interested in the greenhouse quantification of products and their impacts. This is an attractive selling point, especially for bigger clients.
• Finance is needed for scaling product production capacity and increasing a customer base.

Future collaboration will take place between the organizing partners on organic matter and biomass used in combination with membrane technology in Kenya that was developed by Ngoni Chrinda.

Agenda

Participants

• Moderator: Duncan Gromko (UNIQUE forestry and land use)
• Host: Lini Wollenberg (CCAFS)
• Francescah Munyi (KOFAR)
• Javier Rodriguez (BioFutura)
• Ngoni Chrinda (Mohamed VI Polytechnic University)
• CCAFS: Deissy Martinez and Andrea Castellanos
• Carlos Barcenas (IICA)
• Sandra Loaiza (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT)