What are the barriers for the TerraCottem market in Burkina Faso ?
Our survey showed that we have to deal with a lot of (mis)perception, rumours and a lack of information.
Due to the uncontrolled tests/projects, no follow up and spreading of the correct information, different stories find their way to diferent people, who again find confirmation of the same story through somebody else, in fact not knowing it was in fact the same scource.
Other arguments are correct, but not always put in the right perspective.
We could summarize this in the following barriers:
- Price
- Availability
- Credibility
- Affordability
- Investment mentality
- Cultural reasons
- Competition
- Information and Marketing
Price
As TerraCottem is mostly used for 2 main reasons: saving water, or getting a better growth, crop, the price is certainly a barrier.
For calculations of their pure economical use
For the use of gardens, private or public, if full price has to be paid, it is very clear that TerraCottem is a useful, economical product.
For use in vegetable cultivation, it is much less obvious, but still useful if certain conditions are fulfilled.
For reforestation, it seems we find completely different opinions (see: what did we learn on our journey) , both from a economical perspective.
On 1 thing everybody agreed: those who do not pay the full price for water, such as the vegetable gardens near the dams, TerraCottem is much too expensive.
But most people also added that this use was really unethical, as they are using water, which could be used for somebody/something else.
Also we got another solution for the watering: get trashwater, this is much cheaper, gives work to somebody, and is not using tapwater in a country where a lot of people do not have access to drinkable water.
Availability
Availability is also one of the top arguments which came out of the survey.
The absence of a structural distributor, made a natural growth of the market in TerraCottem very hard as:
• it made it impossible for anyone who wanted to repeat the tests of Prof. Willem Van Cotthem , or test it in their environment with the plants – trees, vegetables, natural fences or others.
• It was impossible for small projects to start, as importing small quantities would drive up the price of TerraCottem above all psychological and financial levels.
• For those who needed support from TerraCottem NV , there was no link, so no support.
TerraCottem has known an unofficial distributor, Loek Masthoff, a Dutch entrepreneur and logistic support to Prof. Van Cotthem, but is is unclear what effort he made to promote TerraCottem. In one of the answers on our survey, it was suggested that his margins on TerraCottem were too high, but this seems to be unlikely. This criticism could come from the big difference in prices between NGO prices and prices for commercial use.
With the departure of Loek due to health problems, all support for TerraCottem dissapeared.
Credibility – Conservatism
TerraCottem seems to be a typical product for “believers and non-believers”. The number of tests done worldwide and their official outcome, should have given the product general support against desertification.
And still there seems to be a continuous stream of critics, with no proof, a sort of word against word, about the product.
It is like for every organisation the test has to be done again, on another ground, using other vegetables or plants, etc.
For those who used TerraCottem, the results were very clear, and most of them keep re-using it.
With the tests for which we have the result, we could make a statistical conclusion .
To overcome this barrier, we negotiated with the ministry of Agriculture tor do tests with TerraCottem. This to have a neutral organisation which can confirm, or deny the results suggested by TerraCottem NV , or at least the tests they collected.
We left enough TerraCottem for about 20 m², which was not enough for them. They want to test in 4 different zones in Burkina Faso , on a bigger area, and were looking for financial aid for doing so. Complementary measures included (which seemed to be money for gazoline.) As we refused this with the arguments that:1) our project did not have money 2) we also paid for our own gazoline and we did not get any benefit out of these tesst 3) if they could not see the result in 20 m², they would not see it in 2500 m².
We were shocked that they asked all this, seeing how they told us in the beginning that seeing the urgency, they would use any possibility to find solutions for the drought!
Discussing this afterwards with others, this kind of “testing” was common practice. Free material, no results.
Affordability
Not only the price makes something affordable. As discussed in the section availability, the minimum quantity is also important .
The first factor of affordability is of course the minimum quantity to order as an importer. That is what we discussed earlier in “availability” .
The second factor of affordability is for a single customer. What is the barrier to start with? For detergents for washing clothes this is the quantity which is used in one time.
In one of our last meetings before leaving Burkina Faso with the future distributor and some potential saleswomen, even the minimum quantity of 5 kg TerraCottem – for 50 m² or a small garden, was considered as too much. Regardless of the much higher price, they prefered the bottle of 750g to keep the starting barrier as low as possible. |
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Investment mentality
As discussed in the paragraph Entrepreneurship in Burkina Faso the investment horizon is very short. Mostly less then one year, often they just do not invest.
The main reasons:
• Complete absence of savings to make any investment.
• And following this no access to credit.
• Micro-finance systems seem to be linked to individuals, and not groups.
• Uncertain and untransparant tax regimes.
This short view is not only for the poor. The middle class, even if their situation is slightly better, has to cope with these problems. The only paradox I noticed, is that personal cars seem to be the only investment which seems to escape this barrier.
Even obvious investments such as solar panels do not appear as much you would expect in this country.
I consider this barrier as the most important.
Cultural reasons
From a Flemish NGO chief, we heard a remark about cultural barriers against the use of TerraCottem. We are not able to confirm or deny this, as we did not meet anybody who mentioned this.
Competition
The biggest competition I could find are the hundreds of NGO's with their own project, with money from abroad. As it is impossible for the farmers to follow everything which is proposed, it is only human to follow the one which is free and well explained.
For vegetable cultivation, a direct competition for TerraCottem would be a much cheaper solution of its components, with the driving factor pure polymer, and organic fertilizer, local or imported, mixed with this. Perhaps on results this method would not be as effective, but could be more efficient .
As TerraCottem is not protected by patents, this is a potential situation, but not yet correctly tested. Some of the tests spread by TerraCottem, gave even a negative result for pure polymer.
Other competitors for TerraCottem in vegetable use are microdams, or other techniques which conserve water after rain for later irrigation.
For the functionality of saving water, the real competition is, getting undrinkable trash water, or free dam water.
Information and Marketing
Seen the other barriers – credibility , availability – it is important that the introduction of TerraCottem is seen as developing a market .
The creation of a strong brand, together with informing the public about the technology and its results will prevent that every test should be done over and over again.
To train and inform the local farmers, local networks from different NGO's and other organisations should be used, or schools for young farmers like Pierre Kaboré nearby Zorgo is setting up.
This information and marketing effort should be well planned to keep the efforts within limits. With efforts I mean financial and man-hours.
Without a corrected information and marketing campain, the working capital will be too high as there is too little turnover in stock, which will make other investments, from the distributor's point of view, more interesting.