An Overview Of Our Solution
The changes in both the economy and the climate, demands a change in the way businesses are ran by owners. This ranges from the fortune 500 companies all the way to start-up businesses. From banks all the way to a peasant farmer. The businesses world at the moment demands that in whatever one is engaged in producing, they should ensure sustainability coupled with resource efficiency. This virtue also applies to agro-processing industries such as Jakana Foods. At Jakana foods, we are mainly involved in the production of organic dried fruits and also juices. We also provide extension services to both certified organic farmers and conventional farmers who would like to turn organic. This company was started in 1998 with founder Dan Jakana as the only employee.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Africa
General Information
Organization type
individual
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Freshwater
Oceans/Coasts
Population impacted
3,000
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
50 ha
Production quantity
80,000
People employed
29
Solution
Describe your solution
At Jakana Foods we have identified a category of solutions which we consider to be effective in addressing the challenges facing Uganda as mentioned above. Some of these solutions include development of animal feeds from fruit peelings in form of silage, use of processing by-products to formulate new products, developing of compost from fruit peelings, use of energy efficient furnaces for our fruit driers and also using of other fruit wastes as mulch in the garden.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
Silage is a high moisture fermented fodder which can be fed to ruminants. Specifically the silage is made to reduce on the amount of waste that we send to the land-fill which eventually leads to greenhouse gas emission and also water pollution. This is achieved through converting the “waste” into silage by fermenting in an airtight plastic bag, after mixing the fruit peelings with a solution of molasses and livestock microbes.
The silage also addresses the issue of the scarcity of pastures due to the high above the ground temperatures which have led to the wilting of most of the pastures for animals. Therefore provides a readily available, and a nutritious feed to farmers which can stay edible for several months therefore ensuring availability of feed for their animals throughout the year. With the few farmers that we have worked with, adopting the use of siiage was slow in the first stages. This was due to the fact that, most of them were relying on the conventional feeds such as bran which are quite expensive, and also had the misperception that silage was not nutritious enough to support growth and weight gain for the animals. But through thorough sensitization about the economic benefits of feeding their animals with silage, farmers adopted the idea. Some of our key success factors includes the fact that the farmers are provided with high quality silage, which at the same time is affordable. Our main obstacle was financing and getting the workers and the board of directors on board. But we overcame this by convincing and showing them that this project was a great venture which could give the company returns while also ensuring that it satisfies the core value that our company operates on “good for your health, good for nature. After insulating, we were able to increase the efficiency of our furnaces by at least 40%. This helped to reduce firewood we used per batch of fruits dried & reduced carbon emissions.
External connections
Our activities/projects that we are carrying out at Jakana Foods connect with other sectors to a great extent. This so because our activities aim at creating sustainability in the agriculture and agro-processing industries. This ranges from forestry whereby we are aiming at minimizing the rate of deforestation being carried out by reducing on the quantity of wood we need to dry a batch of fruit, to fisheries where we are channeling our “waste” to produce silage and compost, thus preventing water pollution that results into high B.O.D, and eutrophication. Our activities also connect with the agricultural sector through providing compost and silage to farmers ensuring high crop yields and animal productivity respectively.
Some of our key partners include Uganda Cleaner Production Center, which introduced us to the resource efficiency practices, other key partners are the farmers the buy our silage and compost, thus providing revenue to produce more
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
All the challenges that Uganda is facing in terms of food security spring up from the fact that the stake-holders in the agricultural & agro-processing industry are not practicing sustainable & resource efficient form of production. Companies & farmers are so involved in the production stage, which involves high costs, while providing less opportunities. Normally a fruit juice processing plant in Uganda will put its main focus on producing the juice, & they will ignore other opportunities such the peelings which have been generated, that can be used for another product, or bio-gas. Or a maize farmer who is so concerned with harvesting his ready to eat crops, thus ignoring the use of the maize stalks in making compost or silage for his cattle during shortage of pasture. In all these examples we realize that the persons involved miss out on various opportunities, which could have generated more income for them, and also helping in ensuring sustainable and efficient use of resources.
Describe the context in which you are operating
At Jakana Foods we identified that our main problem is waste management, that is how we can minimize the waste we produce, and in case we produce it, how we can channel it into useful products. This not only boosts our revenue, but it also helps us to be competitive with-in the market. In 2016 we were able to process about 100 tonnes of raw fruit which included pineapples, papaya, plantain and jackfruit. From that much of raw fruit, we were able to generate about 50 tonnes of waste inform of fruit peelings, over-ripe fruit and damaged fruit which could not be processed. Studies have shown that to produce about 2500m2 of bio-methane, one needs about 20kg of household waste. Therefore with the 50 tonnes of waste we disposed of to landfills in 2016, we estimate that we generated about 6.256m2 of bio-methane into the atmosphere. Additionally disposing of the fruit waste to landfill in 2016 meant that we lost about 3000 kilograms of compost manure. For the case of the biomass furnaces used for the fruit drier, we use about 3 tonnes of firewood a week, therefore a day we used about 430kg of wood. Studies show that burning 1kg of wood produces about 1.6kg of CO2. Therefore 430kg of the wood we use in a day will produce about 688 kg of CO2. Inefficient use of firewood has also contributed to the high rate of deforestation in Uganda, whereby the rate of deforestation in Uganda from 1990-2000 was 1.7, but it has increased to 2.17% from 2000-2005
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
For the one year that the projects at Jakana have been running, we have managed to reduce the amount of waste that' being disposed of to the ground. The reduction of waste disposable solves a number of issues such as reducing greenhouse gases that can potentially be emitted from the waste. One of the main greenhouse gases emitted fruit waste is methane which is 21 times more potent than carbondioxide, & one of the most dangerous to the environment. The methane is mainly produced by the action of micro-organisms on the fruit waste during the rotting process. The production of methane gas is mainly produced due to anaerobic respiration of the microbes responsible for breaking down the waste material. Therefore through intermittent aeration, we encourage aerobic respiration, which mainly produces carbon dioxide rather than methane. We have also managed to develop compost making available nutrients to crops which could potentially have been lost
Language(s)
Which language(s) are spoken in the area where your solution is implemented?
Water
Through opting for making silage and composting we ensure that our water sources are not polluted. This is because with disposing of waste to landfills as opposed to ensiling and composting, leads to waste running off to water channels during the rainy season. Eventually this waste ends up in water bodies negatively affecting biodiversity. This also leads to eutrophication on the water bodies. Therefore by ensiling and composting we have been reduced water pollution.
Food Security/Nutrition
Providing/selling silage to farmers ensures that the farmers have a constant provision of feed for their livestock. This means that there are improved outputs in milk production and also meat production. Currently the compost that we produce, is being applied to our plantations e.g. banana, and pineapples, and better yields have been witnessed, even through the dry season when most of the plantations were drying up.
Economic/Sustainable Development
Our activities make us competitive in the agro-processing industry. They ensure we reduce costs of production, increasing our profitability. With the income generated from selling of silage and compost, we have been able to generate enough income to support our day-to-day running of the company, therefore saving more money, thus more profit. This not only benefits the company, but it also means that the workers also to get pay rises.
Climate
One of our main goal is waste reduction. Currently 90% of the waste we generate is either used for silage making, compost, or we produce pulp out of it. There we have reduced the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the environment.
Sustainability
The activities we carry out at Jakana Foods rely on market based revenues that are generated with-in the company. From the estimates that we have made, our activities are economically sustainable, given that our projects require low capital investments, yet we generate high profits from them. The only obstacle to the economic sustainability of our projects, is the fact that we have not yet established reliable clients to buy our silage and compost. Therefore we haven’t generated as much profit as anticipated earlier.
Return on investment
The activities carried out at Jakana Foods are quite low cost. For example for compost making no capital investment was required, rather the materials used to set up our composting site, were materials considered as waste. These included wood, old plastic bags and banana fiber to tie the plastic bags onto the wood. The material used for composting were the peelings of the fruits destined to be dried.
To produce 70 kg of silage a capital investment of 6,400UgX which is an equivalent of 2 U.S dollar. The 3200 Uganda shillings caters for the plastic bag where the silage is bagged, molasses, and mola-plus livestock microbes.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
This project is 100% replicable. This is because it is a low cost project, and it addresses problems that most farmers and agro-processors have been seeking answers to. But to ensure that this project is replicated elsewhere training and sensitization sessions have to be carried in order for the stakeholders to realize that inefficient use of resources and unsustainable farming or processing methods are leading to their current low yields while also reducing on the profitability of their businesses. Another crucial step in replicating this program is to assist different stakeholders generate SMART ideas that they can use to overcome the various issues that they are facing