Mbolea by Avoruti

Avoruti

Mbolea by Avoruti

Empowering nomadic pastoralist women to be key suppliers of organic inputs supporting regenerative agriculture in Africa.

Laikipia County, Kenya

Kenya

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

Our company is helping solve two problems: First, the rising threat to food production due to poor soils that have made smallholder farmers poorer and secondly, the waste of natural resources that contribute to significant CO2 emissions yet it could help unlock economic prosperity for pastoralists. Today nearly 500 million smallholder farmers who are responsible for 70% of the world’s food production are under threat because of poor yields due to high soil depletion of nutrients and lack of organic matter. Poor yields associated with unfertile soils are a leading contributor to food insecurity in Africa. At the same time, 200 million nomadic pastoralists globally keep cattle that produce high volumes of manure that go to waste and remain unutilized because culturally they are only interested in cattle rearing for meat. In Kenya, these communities live in arid areas unfavorable to crop farming due to harsh climatic conditions. Women in these communities face a myriad of challenges including early marriages, gender discrimination, and lack of participation in economic opportunities. Unfortunately, cattle manure deposited on pastures is the second largest source of Green House Gas emissions and is responsible for 7% of agricultural emissions of Methane and Nitrous Oxide worldwide.

Through our proprietary circular composting technology, we process large volumes of cattle manure sourced from nomadic pastoral communities of Kenya to produce a high performing organic fertilizer that helps smallholder farmers in high agricultural areas to produce more food by up to 40%. Our unique and proprietary process turns a local problem associated with large volumes of uncollected cattle waste manure by the nomadic communities of Kenya, which causes serious environmental emissions, and converts it into a valuable and eco-friendly organic fertilizer. We do this through a proprietary process where fresh manure is quickly turned into a stable form and enriched with essential elements to make a product that boosts the soil nutrients. We stand out because we use an inexpensive composting technology that makes our product very cheap and affordable to thousands of farmers. In addition, our product is high in humus and organic matter that helps rejuvenate the soils and boost crop productivity by up to 40%.

We currently work with 1,000 farmers who use our organic fertilizers to boost their crop productivity. Kenya has a total of 7.5 Million smallholder farmers that could benefit from our product. The farmers we work with have reported up to 40% more yields, which helps them produce enough food to sell commercially, allowing them to pay for other key life necessities, such as school fees. Our work empowers nomadic women who are the key suppliers of our inputs usually large volumes of cattle manure. These women face a myriad of challenges including early marriages, gender discrimination and lack of participation in economic opportunities. We pay at least $150 for every load we collect from one household usually about 10 tons and these women use this money to buy food or take their kids to school. This new source of income is a game changer to a community that never earned anything out of the cattle manure. Livelihoods have improved and there is renewed hope for the future.