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[edit] The farming in Jukwa, Ghana -a proposal to raise funding

[edit] Prologue

In Taiwan, we have explored and planned to post a complete project to Kiva site to help the Jukwa farming problems. With the effort the OVF, Ghana and Joy Tang, and many people including 2008 NTHU volunteers team, we have a very good contact and communication with the local farming. We collected the data we need and discovered the problems of the rural village. It is the process of trust-building between farmers in Jukwa and us. On the other hand, we happened to attend the maker-faire Africa in Acrra, the capital of Ghana. We also believe it is a process of innovation dissemination which maker-faire has always been challenged. So I proposed the documentary of Jukwa farming and palm oil production to make the world know the Jukwa story and to raise the attention of these issues.

[edit] objective

This purpose of the documentary is make the people know the Jukwa farming more. Furthermore, it provides the information of process of making palm oils in a current factory and compared to the project site factory which is planning to start up. From these data and information, we can find some problems and difficulties that farmers will face in the future. As a student trained by industrial engineering, I will list some points that I find while I am walking through the process of Jukwa farming and interviewing the local farmers, Mus and Stephens. Afterwards, bringing out the problems can motivate us people to reconsider the issue of dissemination of innovation and farming problems.

[edit] Background of Jukwa farming

Jukwa is a small village near Cape cost. It takes 20 minutes to drive to get Jukwa from Cape. We don’t know exactly what the population of Jukwa is, but almost 90% of people in Jukwa are involving the farming industries. Among the farming industries, the palm oils plays a big role of it. Farmers in Jukwa rely on the palm oils production to make their livings. Farmers in Juwka make their oils by simple machine which is launched by labor. It costs lots of time and labor to produce oils. After the production, farmers will sell oils to the soap factory or they will separate them into small amounts in a bottle to sell for cooking oil in the local market. The whole process, including striping, boiling, cracking, and packaging, of making a basket of oils takes about an hour. Each day every factory, depends on its capacity, produces about 10 baskets of oils to sell. And each of basket can be labeled 45 to 60 Cedis to sell. Farmers in Jukwa don’t have the concept of kilos, so usually they can’t tell exactly how much the capacity they have.

[edit] Red oils & Palm kernel oils

There are two different types of oils, Red oils and Palm kernel oils. When the farmers get the palm fruits from the palm trees, they will use the stripper to get the palm seeds first. Heating the seeds is the next step. Palm fruits will be heated by boiling tanks. After 45 minutes to 1 hour of boiling, depending on the amounts of palm seeds, palm seeds will be taken out into the digester which is a better machine in the project site, or into the sieve machine which is used by the current factory. After digester or sieve machine, it will come out the red oils.

The palm trees harvests 4 times a year. It takes a lot of time to harvest, extract oils, and the palm ruits are often rotten because of the factory doesn't have the ability to process the palm fruits in time A very important point is that the quality of the oils depends on the freshness of the palm fruits. If the palm fruits are fresh enough, the oils are edible, vice versa. In fact, the both factory are not able to produce the palm kernel oils by themselves. They are lack of either machines or capacity to produce the palm kernel oils.

[edit] Process of making palm oils

[edit] The one which is functioning now

[edit] The new project site

[edit] Comparing the two factory

[edit] Difficulties and problems of the farming

[edit] time, labor, machines, bottleneck -> farming capacity

the profit of farming is really low. Most of the young people live in inland of Ghana will go the coastal areas to look for the jobs. They don't want to spend that much time doing farming. Therefore, lacking of farming labor impacts on the capacity and the quality of the palm products. causing the problems of low quality and poor package. Also, inland Jwuka suffers the problems of lacking of the market. Even though the market has enough capacity, the local farmers do not have the ability of selling products to coastal areas. Hence, local farmers are always exploited by the merchandiser by charged unreasonable price.

when all goes to all, Jukwa's farming industries' root problem is supply-demand issue. Today, the market doesn't demand so much, and the farming capacity is also not enough. So the farmers produce small amount of oils to meet the small amount of demand. It's a vicious circle to the local farmers. Farmers won't find a better way of making production because of not enough demand. in this way, farmers are trapped into the difficulties.

Then why the farming factory are lacking of capacity? The labor won't put into the production. People in Jwuka don't want spend time on farming because of low profit. Moreover, farmers don't have enough machine to improve the capacity. What's more, as my perspective, there are many bottlenecks in the whole process of producing oils. We can tell the bottleneck from the layout of the current factory. The flow chart is so complicated that the process of making palm oils Say, farmers will wait a long time for boiling the seeds. In the meantime, farmers can't do anything but wait. That slows the process of producing oils. All these factors makes the capacity problem. And the capacity is the weapon that farmer has to against the market.

[edit] Sanitation

There is still some sanitation problems that the project site needs to improve. The project site doesn't have a shelter to store the palm fruits. That makes a lot of sanitation problems. Farmers can't guarantee the freshness of the palm fruits. Also, the project sites needs a toilet room to make the project site more comfortable and cleaner.

Maker-faire Africa also focus on the rural village problems

[edit] Future Outlook of rural economic

During the interview of the local people and youth, we found out that local people are still in confident in the farming industries. Some mentioned that the local king strongly support the farming. He would show people how to farm by him selves. That really told that the determination of the local king. Some youth also mentioned that people in Jwuka are still have a good future

[edit] Government support

Government will send agriculture officers to every rural areas. Like Jwuka, it's the officer who introduces the local farmers the new equipment and the type of crops. The government is still caring the farming industries. It shows up that introducing the new crops is successful and even makes the profit. If the farmers raise the enough funding to operate and new project site, adding the support of the government, the new plan will solve the farming problems thoroughly.

[edit] Possible solutions

[edit] Kiva?

We are looking for the funding to operate the new factory, project site. With the effort of OVF Ghana, NTHU 2008/2009 volunteers, Joy Tang, we play an interaction role: trust agency. We plan to propose the whole plan to Kiva, the most complete agency, to raise the funding. Once the farmers in Jwuka get the money, they can start up the new factory. And the framing capacity will increase to pull the whole supply-demand chain. Suppose that the farming capacity increase, they can also increase the quality of oils. In this case, the farmers have the chances to sell in a better price. Also, they have spare time to create their own market, say bringing oils to the Cape by themselves to sell. So, raising the funding is the most urgent thing and final goal the farmers need to do now.

[edit] MFA ?

We attended the Maker-faire Accra, Africa. Some ideas crossed our minds. The first day, an old man jumped out and challenged the host that was it really helpful to the local farmers. during the session, many people still doubted the efficiency of innovation dissemination. Then we were thinking. We were thinking of what we have done, isn't it a way of innovation dissemination? The whole process of the investigation, including visiting the framers, interviewing the local people, telling them our proposal, helping them listing the budget sheet, and recording the farming life in Jwuka are kinds of innovation dissemination. What's more, during the process, we hope MFA can focus the real problems that Juwka farmers faced and solve the problems.

The Banner of Maker-faire Africa in Accra in KOFI ANNAN CENTER

[edit] Co-operation

Co-operation is a good way of solving the current problems. Every farmer get the profit depending on the portion of the oils the farmer provide. It can not only increase the capacity of the factory but also increase the scale of the factory. But the problem is that the quality of oils are different. They can't just put together and sell. Also, the local people have already formed a cop-up like this. But it still faces a lot of difficulties and doesn't solve the real problems.

[edit] Good package

One of the farmers, Stephen, is a artist. He is good at painting on the fabrics and papers. Once the farmers have the ability of producing high quality of oils, the role of packaging become important. Designing a good package of oils and make a large production to get the good price is the second steps after they start up the new factory.

The soap sold in the market______________________Stephen's work

[edit] Time schedule

Farmers should set up a time table. Listing the day of production and selling day. In this way, farmers know when they can produce oils. The other days they use it to create their own market. Say, they can bring up their own oils to package them. Selling in the Cape Coast can get a much better price rather than the merchandisers come to buy the oils. One the time table is set up, we will see the a energetic supply-demand chain to make more profit.

Discussing with the local farmer at night.

[edit] Conclusion

Comparing the old and the new factory, we know that the new factory will have the ability of more capacity, less time to produce, better sanitation, and making higher quality. And all these things based on if the new project site is functioning or not. In Conclusion, the most urgent thing for farmers is to raise the funding to operate the new factory. We have a clear Jwuka Budget list that we have discussed with the local farmers, Mus and Stepehen. They are the members of the Co-op. Once the factory is operating, the farmers can solve these problems. In this way, the chain of the supply-demand issues will be impacted by this changes, and make the farmer side have more advantages on this whole chain. We are looking for the agency and people who are interested in this project and willing to help the local farming. Also, We would like to discuss and share everything in Jwuka. If you have the feedback or opinions, you can always contact me.

Info Jin Hsueh NTHU Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management, Taiwain Hsuehchin76@gmail.com

OneVillageFoundation 102 Ballatore Ct. San Jose CA 95135 +1.928.499.7962 | info@onevillagefoundation.org

Palm Oil Plant