A centre of excellence for knowledge management, Farmconsult International Limited is a leading management, leadership and communications consulting company that improves people’s lives by developing solutions to enable sustainable agribusiness development and profitable and sustainable use of the natural resources.
The purpose of Farmconsult International Limited is to unlock agribusiness potential through the use of Low External Input Supply Agriculture (LEISA) in order to enable the present generation of human beings to meet their farm produce needs such as food, fibre, natural medicines, decorations, pets and wood products without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Trends towards 2050 predict a steady population increase to about 10 billion people, forcing an increased farm produce output from the available agro-ecosystems in the context of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, global warming and climate change. This exerts increased pressure on the environment with scarcities of agricultural land, water, forests, fisheries, biodiversity resources and non-renewable energy being foreseen.
The directors of Farmconsult International Limited are Christians whose missionary work is about sharing God’s love of loving him, loving and serving humankind and protecting and conserving all his creation. Implementing the programs of the company is part of this missionary work. We serve all human beings and their legal organizations from any region of the world regardless of their race or religion/faith. Our employees come from any region of the world regardless of their race or religion/faith so long as they embrace our culture as enshrined in our core values. The company is not affiliated to any political or religious organizations and does not support partisan politics and religious matters. We believe in religious and political tolerance and peaceful co-existence of all human beings.
Farmconsult International Limited provides solutions to enable sustainable agribusiness development by promoting agroecology, green businesses, good food, wellness, fair trade, environmental justice and conservation of the environment and biodiversity. The ambition of the organization is to transform every human being on the planet Earth into an environment and biodiversity conservation champion.
Founded with a dual commercial and social mandate, Farmconsult International Limited is a social enterprise that uses market-oriented production and sale of goods and services to pursue a public benefit mission by contributing to solve the problems that undermine the sustainability of the supplies of farm products for global human consumption in the face of the challenges of climate change, environmental destruction and biodiversity loss. We seek to optimize profits while optimizing benefits to society and the environment. We do this in ways that promote equity, inclusion and social development. That is why our motto is; Putting People & the Environment Before Profit. I am, Because We Are. “Nothing is more important to the human society than preserving its natural capital. Nature does not need people, people need nature. Our health relies entirely on the vitality of our fellow species on Earth." ― Harrison Ford.
The firm was registered as a limited liability company in 2009, having been conceptualized in 1993 and initially registered in Kenya as a sole proprietor business in 1996 by the name Farmers’ Resource Services (FRS). FRS was established to provide commercial agricultural extension services and to trade in farm inputs (e.g veterinary products, animal feeds, seeds, seedlings, farm chemicals, fertilizers, hygiene products and farm equipment) and farm produce ( e.g. Nuts, cotton, lemons, cassava, simsim, wood products and cereals). FRS had established outlets at the Kenyan towns of Mpeketoni, Mombasa, Voi, Gatundu and Mwea. Gradually the products range expanded to Environmental Conservation, Forestry and Wildlife management. When FRS was closed down in 2009, all its activities were taken over by Farmconsult International Limited.
We love what we do and do what we love. We love giving humanity hope and proving lives can change in order to attain sustainable peace and wellness.
We shall keep that promise.
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE FOR DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL VALUE CHAINS: THE OCTANCHOR MODEL
Theory of Change (ToC) is a specific type of methodology for planning, participation, and evaluation that is used in companies, philanthropy, not-for-profit and government sectors to promote social change. Theory of Change defines long-term goals and then maps backward to identify necessary preconditions.
Our Theory of Change uses agricultural value-chains as community entry points to engage people to transform the society positively.
The Theory of Change aims to build and strengthen the partnership and participation of the farmers and their service providers (value-chain actors) through joint planning and development of the value-chain in order to facilitate social accountability and social responsibility. This helps to remove obstacles/bottlenecks to development and ensures that the farmers and the other value-chain actors get adequate resources, opportunities and services for continued growth of their enterprises. Thus facilitating the unlocking of the potential of the value chains by increasing productivity at farm level and profitability at all levels of the value chain.
This creates the enabling environment for improved service delivery in the community and enables community empowerment for championing the development of other agricultural value-chains and the overall positive transformation of the society. Value-chain actors include farmers, private sector enterprises, national and regional governments, educational and research institutes, and civil society organizations. Like learning how to ride a bicycle, the communities are gradually empowered to apply our theory of change on their own or with the help of local experts. Thus enhancing replication, scaling up and sustainability of the project gains.
Farmconsult International Limited develops sustainable agribusiness by applying the Octanchor Model to facilitate the development of agricultural value chains. A value chain is a set of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product for the market. We develop agricultural value chains by building 8 capacities of the value-chain actors and enhance their linkages aiming at improving the productivity, profitability, resilience and sustainability of the farming businesses. The agricultural value-chain actors comprise farmers and their service providers e.g banks and other financial institutions, markets, farm inputs suppliers, insurance providers, government agencies, public policy makers and development organizations.
Our agricultural value-chains promote fair trade, agroecology and green businesses aiming at generating a profit for the farmers and supplying the consumers with products that are not only affordable but are also of high quality and healthy and are sourced from sustainable sources that maintain the health of the environment and biodiversity.
Our consultancy enables the farmers to not only reduce the cost of farm production and wastage but also to improve product quality and enhance technology-enabled sustainability of their enterprises.
The Octanchor Model is a way of thinking and a decision-making framework which guides project design, planning, ex*****on and evaluation. Smallholder farmers are facilitated to form and mange strong common interest groups to enable economies of scale and synergies.
The Octagon and the anchor shape symbolize the 8 capacities that the company’s interventions builds in order to develop sustainable and resilient value chains. The anchor holds a ship in place during storms. It symbolizes endurance, hope, strength and stability. It symbolizes someone or something that holds you in place and provides you the strength to hold on no matter how rough things get.
According to the Octanchor Model 8 capacities that develop our agricultural value-chains are: 1. Enhancing connectivity to enable information and knowledge sharing by the value chain actors. This involves increased application of ICT 2. Market development and enhancing access by the farmers groups to predictable markets 3. Enhancing collective action by the actors for synergies and economies of scale during the farming season 4. Technology (High quality and affordable farm inputs) 5. Mobilization of finances to buy the farm inputs at discounted prizes 6. Reducing farming risks. Our interventions build the capacity of farming communities to become more enduring and resilient in order to withstand and manage the negative effects of climate change (climate shocks and stresses) and other risks. 7. Saving the environment and biodiversity 8. Facilitating policy dialogue to influence policy decisions in both public and private sectors in order to enhance social accountability and social responsibility.
Our Theory Of Change enhances the participation of the value-chain actors in decision making in order to create pathways to enable communities to attain sustainable economic empowerment, peace, liberty, fairness, dignity, wellness, hope and resilience through strengthening the leadership and management of community organizations.
MOTTO: Putting People & the Environment Before Profit. I am, Because We Are.
TAGLINE: Unlocking Agribusiness Potential
SLOGAN: We were born to farm in collaboration with nature, not against nature.
OUR 2 CLARION CALLS: 1. grow Trees That Strengthen Communities....TSC 2. Save Lives. Saving Our Biodiversity: Our Future, Our Choice!
VISION: Farmconsult International Limited envisions becoming the sustainable agribusiness development consultancy of choice that is recognized globally for excellence in developing innovative solutions to facilitate the continued development of agroecology, good food, green businesses and environmental justice for sustainable food security, jobs, peace, wellness, fair trade and biodiversity conservation.
The vision is the final destination of the organization. It is where all our efforts are supposed to lead to.
MISSION: Farmconsult International Limited develops innovative solutions to facilitate sustainable agribusiness development by harnessing the best of nature (the environment and the biodiversity) through building partnerships and enabling profitable and sustainable use of the land, water and living resources as well as unlocking and harnessing the optimum utilization of the available financial, technological and human resources.
The mission informs all the thematic focus areas of the organization and directs all efforts that are undertaken by the programs, projects and activities.
CORE VALUES:
Teamwork
Integrity
Compassion
Excellence
Justice
OUR SERVICES (PRODUCTS RANGE):
Our consultancy services described in these 12 programs are aimed at facilitating sustainable agribusiness development, environmental and biodiversity conservation to enable community empowerment for championing positive transformation in the society. Inquiries are welcome.
Farm management: For individual farmers, farmers’ groups and other institutions.
Project management (Feasibility studies, baseline surveys, design, proposal development, planning, ex*****on, grant management, monitoring, evaluation, closing and consolidating the project gains and enhancing their sustainability)
Value-chain management: Our core business is the provision of commercial agricultural extension services for the management and development of agricultural value chains ( Fisheries, Crop & Animal Agriculture (Including Aquaculture, Film Farming, Hydroponics, Mariculture & Apiculture, etc ). Activities include analysis, training, developing & linking farmers to predictable markets, assisting investors in locating opportunities in the value-chain, etc.
Environmental and biodiversity conservation (Environmental assessments/studies/audits/advisories/planning, training, wildlife management, forestry management, rewilding, waste management, biogas, fighting desertification, urban forestry, agroforestry, landscaping, beautification, renewable energy, Soil, Air, Food & Water Analysis )
Green business development (Incubation, Training, Mentorship , Strategic Management, Audit & Advisories, measuring the business impact on the environment)
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): This includes organic pest control, fumigation, cleaning, hygiene, etc.
Eco-Tourism. The beauty of eco-tourism is that it enables species to become more valuable when alive than dead. When the local community benefits from their conservation efforts, they become conservation champions. We call this environmental justice.
Communication strategies ( Farmconsult Media ): We offer media consultancy services for publicity and visibility for our clients and their products. We amplify the stories in photography and film and in making art for social change.
Research & Development: This aims to generate new knowledge to guide decision-making for improved performance.
Veterinary Diagnostics and Animal Management
Farm Produce Supplies: When you contract our farmers who have organic and fair trade certification for your supplies, you are transforming communities positively and creating sustainable sources for your farm produce. You will make a positive impact on low-income farmers. We facilitate contract farming and increasingly apply ICT to enhance traceability. We seek to expand the organic and fair trade markets so that more and more poor communities can be enabled to attain sustainable economic empowerment, food security, dignity, liberty, fairness, hope, peace and wellness. You should also buy from our farm produce processors and green business operators because they are committed to contribute in making the Earth great again through conserving the environment and the biodiversity. Thus enhancing the sustainability of not only the supplies but also the human civilization.
Sustainable & Healthy Nutrition & Lifestyles.
CLIENTS: Our clients include farmers groups and cooperatives, individual farmers, farming companies, supermarkets, farm produce consumers & processors, farm produce assemblers, manufacturers of farm inputs, governments, environmental & biodiversity conservation organizations, schools, colleges, builders, community development organizations, lending and insurance institutions.
DEFINITIONS:
Good Food: Good food is defined as food that is healthy, green, fair and affordable. ... Good food means that it enhances the condition of is consumers and growers; its production maintains the health of the environment while generating a profit for the grower. The same concept is used to define other farm produce e.g Good Wood, Good Cotton, etc.
Wellness: The state of being healthy in body and mind and having a fulfilling life as a result of actively pursuing activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health.
Sustainable Development: Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depends. The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Environmental Justice: Environmental justice is the empowerment of people to actively participate in environmental and biodiversity protection and conservation and to advocate for the health of the natural and built environments and for the equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens throughout all communities.
Green Business/ Enterprise: Green entrepreneurship is the activity of consciously addressing an environmental/social problem/need through the realization of entrepreneurial ideas with a high level of risk, which has a net positive effect on the natural environment and at the same time is financially sustainable.
Social inclusion: This is defined as the process of improving the terms of participation in society, particularly for people who are disadvantaged, through enhancing opportunities, access to resources, voice and respect for rights.
Social accountability: This refers to a form of accountability that emerges through actions by citizens and civil. society organizations [CSOs] aimed at holding the State to account, as well as efforts by government and other actors [media, private sector, donors] to support and respond to these actions.
Social responsibility: This is an ethical framework and suggests that an individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems.
Agroecology: Agroecology is an integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of food and agricultural systems. It seeks to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment while taking into consideration the social aspects that need.
Biodiversity: Biodiversity refers to the variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. While Earth’s biodiversity is so rich that many species have yet to be discovered, many species are being threatened with extinction due to human activities, putting the Earth’s magnificent biodiversity at risk.
Mariculture: Mariculture is a specialized branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other products in the open ocean, an enclosed section of the ocean, or in tanks, ponds or raceways which are filled with seawater.
Aquaculture: Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae, and other organisms. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the harvesting of wild fish. Mariculture refers to aquaculture practiced in marine environments and in underwater habitats.
Apiculture: Apiculture is the practice of keeping bees as well as the manufacturing of honey and beeswax.
Agroforestry: Agroforestry is defined as ‘agriculture with trees’. However, it is so much more. Agroforestry is the interaction of agriculture and trees, including the agricultural use of trees. This comprises trees on farms and in agricultural landscapes, farming in forests and along forest margins and tree-crop production, including cocoa, coffee, rubber and oil palm. Interactions between trees and other components of agriculture may be important at a range of scales: in fields (where trees and crops are grown together), on farms (where trees may provide fodder for livestock, fuel, food, shelter or income from products including timber) and landscapes (where agricultural and forest land uses combine in determining the provision of ecosystem services).
Climate-Smart Agriculture: Climate-smart agriculture (CSA), also referred to as climate-resilient agriculture, is an approach that helps to guide actions needed to transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively support development and ensure food security in a changing climate.
Organic Food: The term “organic” refers to the way agricultural products are grown and processed. Organic food is food produced by methods that comply with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. For example in the U.S., organic crops must be grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, bioengineered genes (GMOs), petroleum-based fertilizers, and sewage sludge-based fertilizers.
Fair Trade: Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. Members of the fair trade movement add the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products which are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries, but also used in domestic markets (e.g. Brazil, England, and Bangladesh) most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers and gold. The movement seeks to promote greater equity in international trading partnerships through dialogue, transparency, and respect. It promotes sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers in developing countries. Fair trade is grounded in three core beliefs; first, producers have the power to express unity with consumers. Secondly, the world trade practices that currently exist promote the unequal distribution of wealth between nations. Lastly, buying products from producers in developing countries at a fair price is a more efficient way of promoting sustainable development than traditional charity and aid.
Carbon-Trading: Carbon trading is a market-based system aimed at reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, particularly carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels. Companies and governments can buy or sell licences to produce carbon dioxide.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a holistic approach to sustainable crop protection that focuses on managing insects, weeds and diseases through a combination of cultural, physical, biological and chemical methods that are cost effective, environmentally sound and socially acceptable. Compulsory in the EU since 2014, IPM includes the responsible use of pesticides and plant biotech solutions. IPM is important for increasing yields on the existing agricultural land base whilst protecting biodiversity and the environment. IPM has never been more important as the global population rises and demand for food and pressure on natural resources grows. IPM is a system of pest prevention, pest monitoring, and intervention when necessary; utilising a range of pest management tools to provide farmers a means to minimise crop losses to pests and disease, and sustainably maximise production.
Nanga Ya Jamii: This means the community’s or family’s anchor. The anchor holds a ship in place during storms. It symbolizes endurance, hope, strength and stability. It symbolizes someone or something that holds you in place and provides you the strength to hold on matter how rough things get.
Trees That Strengthen Communities (TSC)-TSC is an initiative that strives to create innovative models for mobilizing communities to grow more and more trees and to protect and restore the degraded environments in order to not only improve the lives and livelihoods of the people but also to enhance the habitats of animals and other living things.
The ecosystem approach: The ecosystem approach is defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way.
Species-based conservation: This form of biodiversity conservation focuses on individual species for threatened species, rare and little-known species. Both the ecosystem approach and species-based conservation coexist in our natural resource management.
Public-Private Partnership (PPP) : A Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a partnership between the public sector and the private sector for the purpose of delivering a project or a service traditionally provided by the public sector. The advantage of a PPP is that the management skills and financial acumen of private businesses could create better value for money for taxpayers when proper cooperative arrangements between the public and private sectors are used. PPP can increase the quality, the efficiency and the competitiveness of public services. It can supplement limited public sector capacities and raise additional finance in an environment of budgetary restrictions.
Rewilding: Rewilding is a form of environmental conservation and ecological restoration that has significant potential to increase biodiversity, create self-sustainable environments and mitigate climate change. Rewilding aims to do this by reintroducing lost trees, plants and animal species to natural environments. The ultimate goal of rewilding efforts is to create ecosystems requiring passive management by limiting human control of ecosystems. Successful long term rewilding projects should be considered to have little to no human-based ecological management, as successful reintroduction of keystone species creates a self-regulatory and self-sustaining stable ecosystem, with near pre-human levels of biodiversity.
Change-maker : Means one who desires change in the world and, by gathering knowledge and resources, makes that change happen.
Low External Input Supply Agriculture (LEISA): The term low-input agriculture has been defined as a production activity that uses synthetic fertilizers or pesticides below rates commonly recommended by the Extension Service. It does not mean elimination of these materials. Yields are maintained through greater emphasis on cultural practices, IPM, and utilization of on-farm resources and management.
The LEISA concept seeks to optimize the use of locally available resources by maximizing the complementary and synergistic effects of different components of the farming systems. External inputs are used in a complementary way.
Integrated pest management is probably the oldest and most widely recognized Extension Service program devoted to low-input agriculture.
