Making the farmers smile
Fair Agro Food
In Sudan drought is increasing because of the climate change. Many smallholders see their income out of acacia tree farming decreasing because of deforestation. They do not earn enough to feed their families.
Fair-Agro-Food introduces agri-service-centers to support small holders in agroforestry and agro-economy. We provide inputs, fertilizers and training to the smallholders to grow fruit trees and vegetables among their (acacia) trees.
Through a digital platform farmers can order inputs and services and are able to sell their harvest. We buy the production for a fair price and sell the product national through our agri-service-center-network. This gives the smallholders more and better sources of income and increases food security.
From our benefits 20% is invested in the community as social return. Projects will be initiated concerning water, health and education.
Agro-ecology with the acacia tree
In our planting concept we grow crops between acacia trees and on new land in the dessert we first start with planting acacia trees. Why those acacia trees?
In the dessert you will find worldwide acacia trees of different types. The acacia tree grows the best in a warm and dry climate. The roots are very deep and wide which gives a good basis for water.
With a group of acacia trees a difference can be made in the nature and in the climate. The trees bind carbon, causes particles to react with water vapor resulting in rain and change the wind direction.
The trees are having a major impact on the climate change. Sand remains fixed, more rain is helping nature and temperature will become lower.
This forms a good basis for growing other crops between the trees.
Interested to participate?
Corporate Social Responsibility
Happiness of people, related families and communities is key.
Good working circumstance
Provide boots, gloves, over-alls
Give training to workers and farmers
Work organic in all fields
Return 20% of benefits to communities
Use return for water, health and educational projects
Create jobs for women and youth
Pay fair prices
Stakeholders
In the production chain Fair Agro Food works closely with the next stakeholders:
Small holders: The farmer who owns a small piece of land.
Cooperative: Organized groups of farmers.
Umda and Sheg: The local tribe leaders in the villages.
FNC: Forest National Corporation. The governmental body which maintains the forests in Sudan.
Research centers and universities: Students and researchers in the areas of agroforestry and environment.
FOGA Fair Factory: Buys and processes gum acacia (link)
ECOSIA: Supporter of our tree planting projects (link)
AUXFIN INTERNATIONAL: Partner of our digital systems (link)
Stakeholders explained
Small holders: Small farmers who own and control the land they farm. They produce relatively small volumes on small plots of land. Generally, they are less well-resourced than the big farmers. Market access is very difficult for them. The gum belt in Sudan (the areas where the acacia gum is coming from) has more than 5 million small holders.
Cooperatives: Most small holders are organized in associations or cooperatives. These cooperatives are centered around communities. The cooperatives organize common training and development and acts as representative of the farmers interests to the government. In the gum belt they are called GAPA (Gum Arabic Producers Association).
Together we rise!
Forest National Corporation (FNC): The FNC is a governmental entity in Sudan exercising technical supervision over all forests throughout the country and issuing directives or take measures for protection and management of reserved and unreserved forests across Sudan.
AUXFIN: Social enterprise with the mission of “Financial and Social inclusion for all”. They realize this by: (1)
Building networks of connected smallholder farmers, (2) Providing these networks with targeted solutions via the UMVA system and (3) Operate these networks as a business.
FOGA Fair Factory: The company for Fair Organic Gum Acacia. Factories in Sudan buy the gum from farmers and process it. They are in close contact with farmers and associations returning benefits to the society, gum sector and gum belt. They use fair trade principles through all the organization. Since 2014 they started training small holder farmers to improve the quality and production of the acacia gum.
ECOSIA: Plant trees while you search the web. They use the profit they make from your searches to plant trees where they are needed most.
Meet the leadership team
With lots of proven international experience we are hands-on in managing the business. All of us believe in our social responsibility returning benefits to the start of chain.
Interested to join the team?
Martijn is a social entrepeneur always looking for future improvements. He is experienced in managing teams and organizations.
Martijn Bergkamp
CEO & FounderBased in NL
Elemam has always good ideas about innovations in agriculture systems. He has a long experience in research and development of the agriculture in Sudan.
Elemam Musa
Manager Research and Development & FounderBased in NL
Ali has strong leadership skills from a long background in both Sudan and The Netherlands. He trains youth in Management and Leadership skills.
Ali Abdelrahman
Manager KordofanBased in Sudan
Hanan has her background in business development. She is a strong organisator, pro-active to get the job done, always keeping an eye on the human side.
Hanan Ahmed Kheir
General ManagerBased in Sudan
Implementation Agenda
Our implementation focus is to grow in the three main states of the gum belt in Sudan: Darfur, Kordofan and Blue-Nile. Yearly farmers apply for our program. Selection is based on certain criteria.
In these areas we work on extending our impact to reach in 2024:
100.000 small holder family and community members benefit
5.000.000 new trees planted
100 nurseries established
2.000 jobs for youth and women