Proudly South African dry bean project

 

 

Background

 

Populations in the developing world, which are already vulnerable and food insecure, are likely to be the most seriously affected by climate change. In 2005, nearly half of the economically active population in developing countries—2.5 billion people—relied on agriculture for its livelihood. Today, 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. This is mirrored in South Africa and in KZN where 72 percent of the poor live in rural areas, which are often highly dispersed and difficult to access for support and service.

KZN characterised by economic duality where poverty co-exists with affluence. Whereas the commercial farming sector is characterised by underutilisation of agricultural land, the subsistence agricultural sector is characterised by overpopulation, land degradation, low agricultural productivity and underdevelopment. Subsistence farmers have been further victimised by marginal and erratic rainfall, marginal soils, and the frequency of natural hazards such as drought, floods, hail, frost and disease that have frequently inflicted heavy losses in agricultural production over the years. They also lack infrastructure such as roads, electricity supply, clean tap water, sanitation, health facilities and training centres for skills development. The rural population is characterised by man,woman youth ratios, high unemployment rate, high illiteracy rate, high dependency ratio, low-income levels and poverty. But land is avalible! The abuse and mismanagement of agricultural land resources through the cutting of trees for fuel, overgrazing, and over cultivation has been a common phenomenon. The challenge facing South Africa is to find ways and means of achieving overall economic growth and reduction in the level of poverty while maintaining the ecological integrity of the resource base.

 

Charibiz beans development plans provide an avenue for the local people to increase their resilience to climate change and to become economically active and successfully self-employed within an agricultural framework

Dry beans

 

Charibiz works in the Umdoni and Ethekweni districts and can in future expand all over KZN, it focuses primarily on food security. Dry beans are mainly imported from China 75%, completely unnecessary if you know that South Africa offers optimal growing conditions for this crop, we have the right soil and the right climate. Dry beans are a very strong crop and it is profitable. The shelf life is long and it does not have to be sold in a short period of time. Dry beans is a very strong crop as it does not have many enemies. The crop is strong against diseases. When Dry beans are done the right way there is no reason why people should not succeed. Dry Beans is a crop that can be rotated with Maize, a local crop that most people in the rural area are aware of. We believe that the Charibiz Dry beans project could become one of the most successful non profit projects in South Africa. Its time not to import them, but to grow them ourselves.

 

 

Partnership with Prisons

 

Charibiz has found problems in setting up non profit co-ops and selling fresh produce to local markets, sometimes the offset is to small because the farmers grow individually, it is very much labour intensive. With the result that the loss is often absorbed by Charibiz. Charibiz believes in a more commercial approach , we believe that crops should bring profits in order to make a co-op self sustainable. Due to our experience, we found that unless you work with big commercial farms, low prices and good equipment the chanches of becoming self sustainable is slim. Hence the new strategy to make Charibiz more commercial and we believe the farmers can benefit from this. Charibiz will work as a engine, the heart of the project and we allow others to join our success.

The main focus of Charibiz has been food security on small scale farming, this strive is noble but not economically sound. The work that Charibiz has done in the prison , with the main focus on evangelism is now able to grow due to the relations we have built with the prisons. Charibiz is changing his course into focusing on a more commercial and economical beans farm. Charibiz will cooperate with the prisons in exchange for knowledge and skill development. The main goal is to equip the prisoners with the necessary farming skills needed once they get out the prison. This gives the prisoner a chance to provide for themselves and reduces the chance of falling into bad habits again.

Fair trade

Charibiz will train its farmers to use effective farming methods, we will buy the offset of beans from the small local farmers for a fair price. This way the prisoners who will become farmers can benefit from the infrastructure that Charibiz is offering, they will have a guaranteed offset and it will be economically sound for Charibiz. The goal is to become self sustainable/Self empliod so that small farmers can benefit of the social attitude that Charibiz has been providing for the past years.

 

Charibiz

 

Charibiz works towards alleviating poverty by stimulating local economic development in KwaZulu-Natal through its innovative agricultural beans programme developed with a pro-poor approach and fair trade principles.

Charibiz’s vision is to empower rural farmers. The fact is that farmers are lacking skills in South Afirca. The project of Charibiz, is to equip and motivate farms that were once flourishing to get them start growing again.

Charibiz will source all its knowledge and skill development to make them economically active again. We will buy the crop from the farmers. We hope to able to reaffirm commitment and vision for the local farmers to start farming again. We will offer them our full dedication as this mission is extremely important if we want South Africa farming to grow again and not to be depending on import. Recent studies have showed that due to global warming and the growing population, there will be a food shortage. We as Charibiz believe we need to be ahead of time and its time to invest in food security, in a economically sound way.

The mission of Charibiz is to train and mentor farmers so as to increase beans supply and develop successful agri businesses and link them to markets through the Charibiz brand CHARIBEAN.

The organization’s core values are Accountability, Communication,Perseverance, Hard work, Integrity and Leadership.

The organization seeks to alleviate (1) poverty and food insecurity prevalent in KZN first and with the main vision to help nation wide (2) the need to stimulate the local economy and enable entrepreneurship- identified as South African government priorities and (3) the challenges of climate change and the resultant increased vulnerability of rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Charibiz Cooperatives

 

The co-op will have a strong community based structure comprising collections, local farmers associations and a co-op board with representation from each farmer’s association. In this way, project participants have a very high level of engagement and input into the project at every level.

However, when the project grows and more farmers are selling produce to the co-op, the co-op will grow increasingly self-sustainable until such a point that support is no longer needed from Charibiz. This model enables communities to make a future for themselves, decreasing their dependence on outside organizations. Charibiz wants to function as a buyer and promote a proudly South African brand and wants to eliminate import need from China. The country that provides the beans to South Africa.

 

Partnership between Charibiz, Prisons and local farmers

 

We believe the more offset and the more knowledge that will be distributed the more offset we will receive. The fact is that Charibiz will need at least 50 Hectors of beans to become self sustainable and to be a respectable supplier. We will need to equip lots of small substance farmers, prisoners and commercial farms that have been going inactive. The fact is that we will need all hands on deck to make this project work, we need more beans this might be a motivation based on the natural market concept; demand and supply.

 

Cooperating with local crops

 

Beans can be very easily incoperated with local crops like maize. They form a good crop based on crop rotation, this could increase the success and understanding of the local farmers and even motivation. The other benefit is that kidney beans is a strong crop, it does not have to be watered every day. It's good to keep the soil moist, as this will increase the yield. But even for those we have less access to water, it is a strong crop that can handle harsh conditions. Unlike most crops, its perfect for starting farmers. Once the production is going, Charibiz will need to use facilities to pack or proces the beans. This can create job opportunities for local woman or youngsters .

• Office space – Charibiz will need facilities to equip farmers with the necessary training skills.

• Dry Storage Facility and packing facilities – Once the beans are harvest and dried the need to be stored and packed in a dry place to increase the shelf life

• Collection Truck – Charibiz will need at least a 5 ton truck to be able to collect the beans from its farmers as poor farmers do often not have the capabilities to bring them to you.

• Charibiz Training and work field – next to theoretical knowledge, the prisoners will need to be equipt on the working field. Charibiz will farm together with the prisons to keep the produce going.

• Equipment for Self emploid farmers – All farmers/ Ex prisoners will need to be able to be equipt with the necessary tools and seeds to start producing .

• Equipment for Charibiz projects and infrastructure –Charibiz will need farming equipment to equip its self emploid workers.

• Dry beans processing and packingline – Kidney beans are lots of work, we need people to process the beans and do quality control .

 

 

CONCLUSION

Charibiz is looking forward to partner, in this way it will maximize the use of a community resources to benefit a wide group of people in the Umdoni and Ethekwini areas . The fact is that Charibiz has already done 8 years of community upliftment work, this history is a treasure of knowledge and experience. Charibiz will grow and equip farmers to grow food security in South Africa. The project has lots of commercial potential as that is the main goal, we hope to be able to export again in the future. The set up of a Charibiz Dry beans project will benefit the local farmers . The difference of this project is that we are not bound by a short period of selling times, when beans are dried they can last 2 years. This eliminates any form of crop failure due to a lack of market or cold storage. There is enough market as beans are currently being imported from China, the fact that produce will be grown locally will save on importing costs and will create lots of jobs. We will be able to offer beans competitively so that we are not depending on Charity, but offering a good grade bean that is proudly South African grown, at import prices. We believe the impact of this project can be big for the beans produce in South Africa. The Charibiz second chance beans project has a commercial approach, something that is really necessary in global economical times like these.

This project will benefit prisoners, local small substance farmers and commercial farmers participating in the Charibiz Co-op. Charibiz has made its goal to help, and to grow the agri sector in South Africa. We believe we can be a inspiration to those who have land, but don't know how to use it. It will enhance the economic activity of the provence, thus alleviating poverty and making a positive contribution to the government’s goals of stimulating economic activity, job creation and the reduction of poverty.

We thank you for your support and your consideration of this funding request.

 

Summary:

 

75% of dry beans are import from China now.

Pupose driven training .

Entraperneural community.

Cooperative approach.

Reward according work.

Logistic managable.

Proudly South Afrikan produce.

Job creating.

Crime fighting.

Comercial solution against poverty.

Fair trade!

 

Want to help?

Help Charibiz to set up a farm to grow beans in South Africa, help them to create jobs and skills to grow beans to be able to supply not just the local markets but also the commercial markets. Help small farmers to be a part of Charibiz beans project. Together we can make it work, together we can provide a South African kidney bean, together we can be proud on our own brand. A brand that will be based on fair trade, creating skills and helping people that need to be helped. Offer people hope and prospect by creating a strong cooperation between Charibiz and its beneficaries.

We thank you for your support!