FRUCTI FERA: The market of TerraCottem in Burkina Faso .

 

This study has been conducted as an independent individual , with no ties to the firm TerraCottem nor with any other organisation or private company in Belgium or Burkina Faso . For some points this helped me in my quest, in some others it was a burden. It was and is not my aim to make a profit for myself but I wanted to find an answer to an open question I have had for more than 10 years: “Why is TerraCottem © not commercialised in Burkina Faso and similar regions?”

         Stefan Schippers, e-MBA FBS student 2005-2007

 

History

 

The first experiements with TerraCottem ® (TC) in Burkina Faso (BF) were executed by Prof. Dr. Willem Van Cottem in 1988 in the field of reforestation next to the side of the road from Ouagadougou to Yako. At that time these area's were protected by Bekaert metal wire fences and ethernit tubes, both very effective, as they were not sold in Burkina Faso . This meant that noone dares to steal them, as they could be traced.

In july 1992, I became involved in some new tests in order to boost the yield of vegetable cultivation with TerraCottem. At that time, I was involved with TerraCottem through a firm called Daktuin NV (Roof gardens). A roof garden has the same problems as arid area's have in regards to keeping water for long periods.

In December 1992, I went back to Burkina Faso to note the very positive results…

 

15 Years later, in a search for a useful (with Capital!) project for my thesis to finish my e-MBA study at FBS I came back to this subject and saw that TerraCottem NV had made no or little effort to commercialise their product in the sub-sahara zone. Why?


Burkina Faso , a market for TerraCottem?

 

Burkina Faso is an extremely difficult country to do business with and in: low rating on the transparancy index, very poor, without great natural resources and is regularly hit back by the extreme arid climate of this sub-desert zone. About half of the population (13 million) lives under the 1$ per day limit. The South- West zone of Burkina Faso, with Bobo as the largest city is the “green” part of Burkina Faso . Dori, in the North-East is a complete desert.

 

All of this makes Burkina Faso a natural market for TerraCottem ® , was it not for the fact that there are a lot of barriers to selling the product. From the customer side: the price is too high, it is culturally not adapted to BF, it attracts termites, there is no official distributor, no proven record in vegetable cultivation. From the seller side: there is no mentallity for change, they have no money, the governement will tax you sky-high the moment you have some success , it is too expensive to market towards the poor farmers, who cannot finance these kind of projects….

 

We found out that most of these points were prejudgements and that we could counter some of them and avoid others by adapted business plans following some principles explained in “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid” from C.K. Prahalad .

 

Our Solution

 

Throughout a statistical study of 32 tests undergone in different circumstances (arid countries, laboratorium tests, various plant types) we found that we could count on a minimum 48% higher yield if we use TC in Burkina Faso . Knowing that it would be difficult to put TC on the market below 10 EUR/kg, it brought us to the idea of vegetables with a minimum price of 800 CFA/M² yield.

All of this pointed us towards a business plan with a mixture of economical, institutional and humanitarian actors. The idea behind this is to lower the overhead, and thus financial barriers, by using existing structures.

 

The first layer is a pure commercial one: installing a distributor who is willing to take TC as an extra opportunity, but not his only source of income. This distributor should be attracted enough to say at least untill the last layer is installed and functioning like it should be. This actitivity should finance itself.

 

The second layer is to find commercial and economical customers who will use TC to enlarge their income, or save money by using less water. Also this activity should find the financial means by itself.

 

Layer One and Two should give us the time we need to activate the next 2 layers.

 

The thirth layer, a neutral institution such as an international NGO or a state organisation, should do tests in order to get a neutral and official status of solution technology for the problems of arid zones. These tests are small scale, and the means to do them should be found by the institution itself.

 

The fourth layer, consists of finding various NGO's who have the ability to reach as many people as possible in the various area's. They should work together to do micro-tests and teach the technology to the farmers in the field. We are hoping to find the financial funds for this layer through 3 rd parties (for the NGO's) and micro-finance organisms for the farmers and families.

 

Our result

 

We were able to convince Martial Sawadogo, a local entrepreneur, to ask for the distributorship covering 6 countries ( Burkina Faso and neighbouring countries), to set up a joint-venture with another sales organisation and to set-up a sales organisation. The first market spotted was the private and public gardens where money could be saved on watering. (Layer one and two)

We found out the current users of TC in Burkina Faso , which are 2 NGO's ( AZN and Committee Maastricht - Niou ). One of these was known by TerraCottem NV , the other one wasn't. Both are very positive about the results that TC produces.

 

We got in contact with the Ministry of Agriculture to organise structured tests in 4 parts of the country in order to get an official stamp for the success of the technology. This would also give us the needed publicity for very little money.

(Layer 3)

 

We have not yet succeeded to organise Layer 4, but we are hopeful that after the first tests and after talking to the partner organisation of “Broederlijk Delen” in July 2007 that this layer will also be put into place.

 

 

I have choosen to put this report mainly on the web, in order to share this information with those in the field. For this reason also the website will be translated in French.
You can also download a printable version of the site but please keep in mind that it is not as extensive as the website, nor as up-to-date : Fructifera english