Kabini Organics

My major project here at MYKAPS is to create a website to support the foundation of Kabini Organics. Kabini Organics is a farmer led, farmer owned producer company designed to maximise producer power for poor smallholder farmers. Farmers have increasingly found it difficult to make any money here, and there is a national problem of farmer suicide (here and here) due to high debt caused by interaction with money lenders and poor crop yields. Kabini Organics currently has about 1000 farmer members  (collectively about 3000 acres), and is supported by MYKAPS, ETC India, and funds from the Rabobank foundation.

In their particular areas surrounding the Kabini river (B Matakere), the farmers are surrounded on three sides by national parks and forestry. Whilst this is good for the conservation of elephants, it is less good for the farmers as animals have a habit of coming out of the forests and eating the crops. The normal way of stopping this is to use “solar wire” (electric fences powered by solar panels and car batteries) , but this is not available to poor smallholder farmers. So there is an arms race between the animals of the forest and the farmers; farmers are not able to grow ‘food’ crops easily.

On the upside, the soil is extremely good at growing ELS cotton (Extra Long Staple – longer cotton fibres and commanding a higher market price). Therefore they are experimenting with growing organic cotton here, and trying to ensure a solid and reliable purchase chain. By cutting out various middle men, by removing the moneylenders, and by removing various shennanigans relating to incorrect use of weighing scales, they are able, best case,  to save about 870Rs per quintal (a quintal is 100kg – with a market value of ~3200Rs) by becoming a producer company.

Being ‘organic’ requires compliance to the organic rules of the market you are trying to sell into. In the case of the EU, this means that you must have been growing organic produce for at least two years (3 years for the US), and there are various other regulations like:

• you have to have a map of your farm showing what is sown in which field
• you must keep a diary of what you do each day (what fertiliser etc., sowing, harvesting)
• you must only used allowable fertilisers etc.
• you must not mix organic and non organic crop (either in the field or in storage etc.)
• and a host of other rules.

All these things are required to be certified organic – a certification received from an independent certification agency (such as IMO).

Whilst there may sound achievable to you and me, there is a relatively high illiteracy rate here, and the concept of commitment to what may seem arbitrary long term rules is difficult when you do not have enough money to eat. Education of what the rules are, and audit (internal and external) to ensure compliance are therefore key.

My project, therefore, is to create a website to help explain the background, some the economics and the difficulties, and therefore help create some brand value and brand awareness for Kabini Organics. This is somewhat tricky as they won’t have any certified cotton until next year, and it is not entirely clear to me who we are trying to enlighten (ie who the website’s market is .. end consumer, or purchaser). But it is coming along and at least allows me to add some of my skill and experience into the mix.

If anyone has any questions, do ask me as it is all helpful to try and get the ‘story’ into an easily conveyable format ….