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This is an official entry to Melbourne Microfinance Initiative's Creative Micro-enterprise Competition 2011. This business plan proposes the cultivation of soybeans for the development of the target community in Ghana.
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Soybean Cultivation for Development Benedict Bernabe & Daniel Buchalter Creative Micro-enterprise Competition Finals, 6 September 2011
Why soybean cultivation?
� Makes use of existing assets � Land, labour, farming skills.
� Responds to farmers expressed intent to use microfinance loans to expand farms.
� Allows expansion of farms without overburdening markets with surplus of traditional produce.
� Generates more added value to the community (to be discussed later).
� Plant is hardy, thrives well in different soil and irrigation conditions
� Grows well in warm climate
� Best planted in May – middle of Ghana rainy season
� Matures (pods grow) in 3 months – right before rainy season ends
Are soybeans profitable?
� 10x increase in Ghana’s import of soybeans in 2008 vs. 2007 – growing market (FAO 2011)
� Low entry cost: skills and assets already in place. All you need are the beans!
� Soybeans can be sold as soon as harvested or stored with virtually zero constraints (Plahar 2006)
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
11 227
2356
Import Value in USD 1000 (Source: FAO)
Import Value in (USD 1000)
Are profits sustainable?
First harvest
• Soybeans sold as seeds • Profits used to expand farms
Increase produc?on
• Soybeans sold as seeds • Profits used as capital for micro-‐processing industry
Diversify into
processing
• Soy milk & soybean curd micro-‐industries set up
• Local demand for soybean created
Create new markets
• Training on domesKc uses of soy products creates demand
• Looking into venturing into other soybean by-‐products
Sustainability is written all over our business model. The community can explore going into the production of these soy by-products over time:
• Soy milk • Okara (“waste” from soy
milk extraction) • Soybean curd
• Tempeh (fermented soybeans)
• Soybean oil
• Soy sauce • Soy biomass briquettes
Soy and the Community
� Soybean processing will not just be a source of off-farm livelihood but a source of nourishment for the community as well.
� Soy-based foods are extremely nutritious: � High-grade protein – the only plant that provides all
essential amino acids needed by body � 100g of soy provides 33% RDA of calcium and 100% RDA of
iron. (Plahar 2006)
� Complements existing Ghana School Feeding Program (http://www.ghanasfp.com/): creating demand for local produce, creating incentive for education.
Questions? Benedict Bernabe [email protected] Daniel Buchalter [email protected] Soybean Cultivation for Development by Benedict Bernabe & Daniel Buchalter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
