What we do
Efficient Carbonization and the Need for Sustainable and Reliable Biomass Sources
Charcoal is the most preferred cooking fuel in Uganda (particularly among urban dwellers) because of a variety of reasons including: it is affordability by almost all cadres of society and the only reliable option available for the many low-waged urban employees; it is substantially more efficient than firewood and burns with very limited smoke; it has a high-energy content per unit weight; it has a higher energy density than firewood; it is easier to transport than wood and can be easily transported to markets far away from the forest. As a result, many people consider charcoal a relatively modern fuel rather than a traditional one. Notwithstanding its popularity, the charcoal sub-sector remains plagued by inefficient production practices and lack of sustainable supplies of woody biomass; thereby exerting pressure on natural forests and forest reserves as communities produce more charcoal to meet their livelihood demands and urban charcoal consumer demand. This high consumption level of woody biomass, has, however, not been matched by investment into restocking of harvested areas leaving a growing gap that needs to be addressed.
Fountain of Hope Forestry comes in with a predictable green charcoal production model, which caters for sustainable biomass production with a dedicated plantation established along with community involvement in tree growing and nurturing, use of locally adaptable efficient wood conversion casamance technology (with the ability to convert the high global warming potential green house gas, methane to carbon dioxide and water vapour). In rural areas, access to energy services remains very poor, with only five percent of the rural population connected to an electricity supply; 93% still rely on biomass for cooking. The energy sector is characterized by over dependence on biomass energy which contributes massively to the country’s total energy consumption. To control deforestation due to inefficient carbonisation, we enhance skills of community charcoal producers in green charcoal producing practices and allow them access the efficient locally adaptable technology through an agreed arrangement.
Charcoal production method
The casamance technology is a high modification of the traditional earth mound and can even be operated by women and youth with ease and does produce high-quality charcoal. The pyrolysis oil produced there has a lot of value and uses for the community.
The attached chimney allows better control of airflow. In addition, the hot flue gases do not escape entirely but are partly redirected into the chimney of the kiln, which enhances pyrolysis and reduction of GHE to the atmosphere. The reverse draft allows faster and more uniform carbonization than the traditional earth mound kilns, yielding a higher quality of charcoal at an efficiency that ranges between 23 – 27 %, according to the level of expertise of the operator.
The Uniqueness of FoHF charcoal
- It is produced from well managed and dedicated bio-energy plantations with diligent tree planting and coppice management under FMNR;
- It is produced at an average efficiency of 25%, which is 3 times higher than traditional charcoal production method;
- It is made from carefully selected traditional species of a higher heating value (energy content), higher density, low ash content, longer burning time and doesn’t produce charcoal fine during handling and transportation;
- It is sonorous with a metallic ring, and does not crush, nor does it soil the fingers;
- It burns slowly, with an attractive and natural flame good for barbeque and simmering food;
- It is produced to regulated wood moisture content, making it unable to burst and sparkle with no trace of smoke as it burns;
- Our Charcoal offers our clients the advantage to be part of a climate cautious team/network working to reduce on the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere;
- It is harder, more stable and more regular (resembling the wood billets from which they were carbonized). Larger lumps are therefore associated with high quality charcoal.
- Our charcoal retains the grain of the wood. It is jet black in colour with a shining lustre in a fresh cross-section;
- Our clients get value for money, especially with the charcoal production technology employed, and the quality of charcoal produced.
Biodiversity and Community Livelihoods Improvement
At Fountain of Hope Forestry, we do believe in biodiversity conservation, given its role in food security promotion and sustained livelihoods through overall genetic diversity as every species stands in its niche within the ecosystem. In realization of this biodiversity conservation dream, FoHF started on a company beekeeping enterprise which has increased on species richness while enhancing food security. Our operations are therefore strongly linked to the principles of Sustainable Land and Forest Management (SLM & SFM) in order to realize ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national global levels without causing damage to other ecosystems.
We nurture, plant and also manage such indigenous trees that offer good quality charcoal and can equally be integrated into an agroforestry system. After harvesting to required specifications, our trees have the ability coppice. Depending on our anticipated biomass carrying capacity density, coppices are allowed to grow from the parent tree stumps. We do manage coppices under the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) approach where they offer us a shorter harvesting period.
FoHF promotes both fuelwood and fruit trees that help in augmenting community household demands. In our community participation approach, through a clear benefit sharing arrangement, we supply such indigenous tree species to community members along with fruit trees. Some of these are managed as pure stands, others through FMNR and enrichment planting.
In order to incentivize community members that embrace tree planting on their land, FoHF gives out hives to community members and trains them in sustainable beekeeping and nursery and tree management. We believe that the harvested honey will help our community members manage and keep the tree for an agreed period of time when it shall be efficiently harvested.
The indigenous ecologically adaptable tree species being promoted are offering a wider benefit in ecosystem restoration including restoration of water catchment areas. Besides provision of biomass energy crops to the communities, we intentionally and strategically provide community members with endangered tree species that are nearing extinction on the premise that they only by themselves and not planted.
Bees
Why bees are important
Globally there are more honey bees than other types of bee and pollinating insects, so it is the world’s most important pollinator of food crops. It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees, but also by other insects, birds and bats.
Many domestic and imported fruits and vegetables require pollination. Examples include avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, and sunflowers for oil, cucumbers, citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, cranberries and melons. For crops such as blueberries and almonds, the honey bee plays an essential role in pollination of commercial crops, with around 80% of the US crop said to be dependent on honey bees. Honey bees can also pollinate clover and alfalfa, which are fed to cattle, so there are implications for the meat and dairy industry too. And that is not to mention the huge range of manufactured food products made from all these ingredients.
In addition, honey bees play a significant role in the pollination of other important crops such as cotton and flax. And there are also a number of valuable non-food products produced by the honey bee, such as beeswax used in cleaning and beauty products.
Bees and the economy
In 2008, the British Bee Keepers Association estimates that honey bees make a significant contribution to the £165 million annually generated for the UK economy through pollination by insects, with the figure put at £200 million in 2009 by the UK’s Public Accounts Committee. Many flowering food crops in the UK rely on honey bees for this service, for example: apples, pears, field beans, runner and dwarf beans, broad beans, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and oil seed rape, with 39 commercial crops reliant on bees in total. Even if a crop is not directly pollinated by a honey bee, the crop still benefits indirectly from being in an environment in which honey bees are working, due to the increased biodiversity in the area which stimulates the crop.
Planetary Health Advocacy
It is evident that our global environment is changing; the years are apparently hotter than used to be, unprecedented flooding patterns, global fisheries collapse coupled with a worldwide disappearance of pollinators. Generally, life on planet is in away intricately connected. We are currently faced with not only a changing climate but with declining biodiversity, shortages of arable land and freshwater. Human injustices to Mother-Nature are dramatically affecting global food production systems, quality of air we breathe, and the water we drink, paving way for the emergency of infectious diseases; threatening human survival. We need to reshape social-ecological behavior, enhance ecosystem resilience and improve human wellbeing.
Crop farming
Sub-Saharan Africa produces more than 50 percent of the world’s cassava (aka manioc, Tapioca, and Yucca), but mainly as a subsistence crop. Consumed by about 500 million Africans every day, it is the second most important source of carbohydrate in Sub-Saharan Africa, after maize. The leaves can also be consumed as a green vegetable, which provides protein and vitamins A and B. As an economy advances, cassava is also used for animal feed and industrial applications.
Described as the “Rambo of food crops” cassava would become even more productive in hotter temperatures and could be the best bet for African farmers threatened by climate change.
Cassava is drought resistant, can be grown on marginal land where other cereals do not do well, and requires little inputs. For these reasons it is grown widely by African small and poor farmers as a subsistence crop. However, cassava’s potential as an income-earning crop has not been widely tapped.
Cassava presents enormous opportunities for trade between areas with food surplus and food deficit. Currently, a large shortfall of the regional food supply is filled by cereals bought in the international market. For cassava to become an income-earning crop at intra-regional market for small farmers in Africa, two main obstacles remain: post-harvest processing and regional trade barriers.
Because transporting raw cassava over long distances is uneconomical and logistically difficult due to its high water content, fresh cassava must be processed into products suitable for transportation in order to be sold in markets. Cassava chips are transportable as a semi-processed product for animal feed, which involves simple procedures and can be accomplished at farm gate by small farmers with the current technology. However, processing cassava for human consumption requires more complicated procedures, as well as water, which could be scarce in certain rural areas. Low yield can also hamper small farmers’ profitability, but a few African countries have already achieved yields comparable to that of Thailand’s, the world leading cassava exporter.
After cassava is processed into a transportable form, cross-border trading can be challenging, depriving farmers of profits. For example, it takes 32 days to export and 38 days to import in SSA, while it takes only 23 days to export and 24 days to import in Asia. It is estimated that the cost due to the NTBs in Southern Africa alone is equivalent to more than $1 billion per year.
Commercialization of cassava is already happening at the community level. However, cassava is yet traded at intra-regional level. Currently, the limited post-harvest processing capacity at industrial level and the high-cost added by NTBs (in some areas low yields are also an issue) make the cost of cassava flour considerably higher than that of imported cereals. In the short- to medium-run, however, cassava intra-regional trade for human consumption and animal feed should be a viable option if the impediments are addressed. Additionally, women can benefit significantly from this process because they play a dominant role in food production and trade in Africa.
What do you think should be done to accelerate cassava trade in Africa, if you agree with me that cassava has a great potential to alleviate regional food shortages and poverty?