KOMAZA is a social enterprise that develops economic opportunities for smallholder farmers living in East Africa’s unfertile and drought-prone regions. Founded in 2006 by Tevis Howard, the organization’s social business model is designed to dramatically boost household income and wealth for rural farm families.
By reducing burdensome start-up costs, helping farmers grow more productive, high-value crops and removing barriers to market access, KOMAZA aims to transform entire agriculture value chains to make them work better for the poor.[1]
Swahili for “promote development; encourage growth”, KOMAZA is registered as an official non-governmental organization (NGO) in Kenya and a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in the United States. It is incorporated in the State of California.
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KOMAZA's flagship initiative is its sustainable tree-farming project, which serves as a market-based mechanism to fight rural poverty and deforestation in East Africa.
The organization’s “microforestry” model is a unique combination of microfinance, sustainable forestry and conservation being implemented throughout Costal Kenya. Working through a village-based farmer extension network, KOMAZA identifies interested farmer groups under the advice and consent of community leadership and then provides them with appropriate agriculture inputs and tools on credit – such as improved seeds and fertilizer, on-farm training and support, and complete vertically integrated value chain services so that they can access markets and transform their previously unproductive land into valuable tree farms. Farmers can then reinvest this profit to start their own business, pay school fees for their children and receive improved healthcare.[2]
KOMAZA structures its organization as a social business – recovering its costs and earning a small profit from each farmer, which is then reinvested in program expansion and holistic community development. According to KOMAZA, this allows the organization to become a "self-sustaining” and “self-scaling” partner for rural development. By the end of 2012, the organization plans to plant two million trees with 10,000 smallholder farmers.[3]
At the end of 2010, KOMAZA had partnered with nearly 2,000 farm families to plant more than 275,000 fast-growing, drought-resistant trees in Kenya’s Ganze District, the country’s poorest political constituency. When sustainably harvested, these trees will be sold to local and regional markets to be used as raw materials for various products, from telephone poles to construction materials.[4]
The organization has also established two industry-leading experimental farms to further refine agricultural practices for semi-arid farmers living in East Africa.
In 2008, KOMAZA and its founder Tevis Howard were awarded major grants from The Mulago Foundation and The Draper Richards Foundation and chosen to enter their highly selective portfolios of social enterprises.[5] During the same year, Howard was awarded a Rainer Arnhold Fellowship, which provided a two-year stipend to pursue KOMAZA full-time. He has also been recognized as a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow [6][7]. Tevis is featured on the Pop!Tech Website giving a talk on KOMAZA[8]
KOMAZA's work has been written about in The Daily Nation [9], Kenya's most influential newspaper, and the organization has also been featured in The Solutions Journal[10].
KOMAZA was founded in 2006 by Tevis Howard while he was studying at Brown University. Between 2002 and 2005, Howard’s academic studies frequently brought him to the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Labs, a world-renowned medical research facility in Kilifi, Kenya, a small coastal town of 40,000 people.[11]
As Howard spent more time in East Africa, he acquired a deep understanding of the social and economic problems facing this extremely impoverished part of the world. Upon realizing the remarkable potential and entrepreneurial spirit of the community, he launched KOMAZA and has since dedicated his efforts to growing and strengthening the organization.[12]