Solutions

eGro is an early stage startup.

We are reversing climate change by doing business.

eGro has a scalable beneficial solution to replace conventional monoculture farming, which destroy lands, empty water resources, and fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses.

eGro´s business model is to commercialise an existing permanently sustainable agroforestry model. We do this together with rural farmers in developing countries where the method has most impact. We give these farmers in rural areas of access to the Nordic European market by selling their products to the conscious global consumers.

eGro farmers are educated in Permanent Agriculture (Permaculture) which imitates how nature is designed. Using permaculture as a method farmers convert arid drylands into green profitable forestry systems. These forests provides climate resilient crops by the trees protecting food and cash crops from drought, heat-waves and flooding.

The global industry use raw material products from these forests and conscious consumers buys these sustainability products at a high premium, especially when they are produced by rural farmers in developing countries because of all positive aspects associated to the production.

One of the biggest issues discussed on the global scene nowadays is undoubtedly climate change. It is the 21st century when we have been witnessing it is not an abstract power anymore. Matters such as human health, food security, water supply, transportation, energy, ecosystems and others draw more and more attention to its impacts.

In the public debates, many advocate that climate change is not a zero-sum game with winners or losers, however, when we look at gender-related inequalities in the developing world women are much more vulnerable and conditions of their well-being are at a much higher stake.

Moreover, the agricultural practices of monoculture, which reduces biodiversity and leads to soil degradation, water depletion and other negative environmental effects,

eGro started in Ghana in August 2016 with a pilot project amongst the rural population in the sahelian savannah region of Northern Ghana.

In the spring we initially partnered up with 3 social entrepreneurs in Tamale, for them to go and research innovative villages in their rural areas.

After having successfully identified these eGro Denmark founder, Jacob Vahr, went to Ghana and together they went on scooters, 80 km into the bush, spending the nights with the locals, recruiting 5 farmers in 3 villages and established a nursery in a 4th village.

In 2016 we produced a small dried spice crop, cayenne chili's, as a test.

This happened during the last 2 months of the rainy season, september and october.

We managed engage in participatory trainings in demonstrations and to give inputs and education via digital media. We did a cinema presentation of modern agroforestry, using a computer, loudspeaker and a projector up against a white wall of one crop silo and 2 mosques.

We were showing the whole community, all generations included, videos of forestry methods and bleeding edge innovation in land management, food production and processing with simple manual methods that could easily be adapted them.

We also started planting cashew, acacia, and mango trees. This to ensure land regeneration, increased watershed to water table, and multiple perennial crops that would allow for diverse food production, healthier diet and potential market access in a long term sales strategy.

In 2017 eGro Ghana recruited 8 eGro consultants, one from each village we had intention to produce in, and trained them in these permanent agriculture methods.

The weakness of the poor uneducated rural farmer is that they identify food production with conventional monoculture production, by this they wish to use modern obsolete methods like ploughing and heavy mechanisation.

Our conclusions are that we have a must win battle in our supply chain. We need our own nursery capacity for tree seedlings, and our own seed supply production, and we need to engage with a different groups of people that are not already patriarchal individualistic farmers.

Instead we are seeking to find women groups at the bottom of the pyramid that are organised in savings groups or existing cooperatives to build agroforestry, and permanent agriculture food forests and forest gardens.

We are able to work very cheaply and efficiently as a social enterprise using scooters and motorcycles, and using internet, without any expensive western employees on the ground. We are able to identify, engage and educate, recruit and manage in decentral locations. We are able to educate and move heavy products, and adapt to logistics and change mindset of workers like tractor drivers on the ground without friction.

eGro´s model is a viable strategy to integrate social entrepreneurs, simple frugal low-cost methods, digital education, and the ambition and needs of rural people to increase their food security, and to feed the rest of the planet in 2050.

Along with reversing climate change as these people are planting forests in all corners of the world. For their own profit and the stability of the systems.

With an integrated effort and a full commitment to make the small steps in the value chain function, we have shown we are able to build a complete impact methods, that benefits people, planet and profit.

Our key methods is to empower communities to be capable of producing sustainable food and consumer goods, from raw materials harvesting in forests, is the solution to securing the global development and perhaps humanities existential troubles.

By combining this in a financially viable business model, hooking the rural producers up with the existing markets trend of conscious consumers, will make for scalable and investable companies in all regions, regardless of soil and water quality and conditions.

eGro with its subsidiaries is a company that will be ready for the future and taking climate change as an opportunity to compete with the old rigid dinosaur industries.

The vision of course is to being able to create completely sustainable habitats for human being in all parts of the planet, in harmony with nature, with man as a crucial humble and integrated component to the survival of the ecosystem, through human being shepherding the forests, and the forests providing for man.