Komaza
Social Entrepreneur
Tevis Howard
Founded
2008
MISSION
To bring dryland farmers out of poverty.
Where they work
Kenya
BUSINESS MODEL
Provide farmers living on dry lands with end-to-end micro-forestry support — seedlings and fertilizers on credit, on-farm training, and harvesting/manufacturing/sales of high-margin wood products — to help farmers revive their degraded environment and earn increasing income from their barren land.
Annual budget
US$750,000 FY11 (Dec-11).
Delivered to date
~1,000 families have planted over 285,000 trees.
Impact
~<2% mortality rates against a 10-15% average and growth rate is >50% than large scale forests in better soils
BIG PLANS
To become the largest forestry company in Africa — leveraging fallow land to triple farmers’ incomes by growing and selling trees to local and international markets, yielding increasing income to families for decades of reinvestment to achieve diverse social impact.
Our investment so far
US$200k grant in unrestricted capital.
