White Paper — How can you help fight global Poverty?
Executive Summary
In this white paper, we will define the problem of extreme poverty, look at why current initiatives are not effective, and what can realistically be done to solve this.
Current initiatives supported by NGOs are targeted at treating the symptoms of poverty such as Malaria or consist of Turnkey projects or providing fully subsidized technology, training and guidance are inadequate and in-effective
We are proposing a business and investment opportunity based on our business model which provides a safety net to investors and smallholders alike to cooperate in a way based on mutual interest to create profit by adding significant value (and not by exploiting the other parties).
Our white paper will address the typical questions and concerns of Investors such as:
Ø How can you help fight global Poverty and increase smallholders’ farmers' income?
Ø Can you really help these farmers and still make money for your business and investors?
Ø Can you really reduce the risk of agriculture/farming?
Ø How can you increase crop yield?
Ø How do the exports of high ticket fruits such as Mangos or Avocadoes, higher quality, higher than Organic fruits to first world countries increase the income to the farmer and all players in the supply chain?
Ø Can you really reduce the risk of agriculture/farming?
Ø Can you reduce the risk of doing business in Africa?
While the approach we are describing is as regard smallholders farming, our unique spray-free tech solution, higher branding and Model can be applied to farms all over the world including first-world countries.
We will introduce you to our venture in Senegal which we started in 2018 where we have reduced infestation, increased output and are in the final stages of creating the export of a high-value premium product of Green Valley Mangos to Europe.
The success of this venture will create a Blue Ocean and open up this market for global impact and prosperity.
The Green Valley offering is one of technology, cooperative business model, and visionary founder.
Ø Goals
Ø Shifting smallholders from poverty to prosperity while creating positive return for Investors
Ø Increasing crop yields and income for farmers around the round
Ø creating awareness and connection from the consumer to the farmer
Ø creating healthier, pesticide-free, beyond organic fruits
Ø Means — treats the problem of crop failures through “FreeDome Tech” and providing a Fruit Fly Certified Trade Zone (FFCTZ) — a state-of-the-art fruit fly management protocol
Ø Adds Value — Green Valley Business Model creates a superior brand and cooperative export model
The challenge of global farming is being met head-on in a unique farming and business model by Green Valley which is the brainchild of Nimrod Israely. This is his story and dream in his own words.
“Twenty-seven years ago, while I was spraying my orchards nearly daily (mostly at night), I dreamed of the day when there would be better technology with better results than spraying poisons.
It took me over twenty years before Biofeed completed the development of the 6th generation of Freedome, and I realized my dream in practice.
Then, I started dreaming about using the power of the Freedome breaking through technology to help farmers in emerging economies to double their income, bring prosperity and a better future.
It took me five years of design and development before we completed Green Valley’s large-scale POC (Proof of Concept), where we demonstrated for a fifth year in a row how farmers’ income can increase by 50% to 500% in a single season!
The numbers speak for themselves
Let’s look at the numbers here and the impact of €1,000 invested.
Translating these numbers to the 2,500 Hectares of out the overall revenue to the farmers is growing from a base of Euro 1m to Euro 5m marking a substantial improvement in income to the farmers, their families, and communities.
Green Value empowers the farmers to greater income and there is a big financial incentive to remain part of Green Valley as FreeDome requires an annual refill and controls the export process, the model is one of recurring income and certainty.
The above slide highlights the solid financial basis of the Green Valley approach and we welcome Investors, Partners interested in getting more Financial Information to be in touch with us. You will be surprised to learn that you help farmers substantially increase their income, and have a very healthy business with enough upside for the Green Valley and Investors alike.
Our target is to capture at least 10% worldwide mango market share equating to 500,000 hectares making an impactful reduction in the fight against poverty. We will consider additional high-value fruits.
While we are tackling a core component in the fight against poverty, there is an even wider impact as illustrated by the slide below:
We are proposing that NGOs, Companies, Investors, and you the Individual join Green Valley in making an Impact.
This can become part of your company ESG offering and story — This not only has an environmental element, but a strong social impact. And makes perfect business sense.
We are also proposing the adoption of a Village or Villages connecting you to actual farms and people.
So, what’s next?
Green Valley are looking for visionaries, partners, investors to make these dreams come true and make a real change for the better.
Please feel free to reach out to me — jeffrey@persofi.com or directly to Dr. Nimrod — nisraely@biofeed.co.il
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A look at the current state of Poverty
In a hard-hitting editorial piece by, Idah Z. Pswarayi-Riddihough, the World Bank’s Country Director for Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Comoros, and Seychelles assessed the current status of poverty, The article was headlined “End Poverty Day — time to regroup and build back better”.
In this article she highlighted:
“On October 17 each year, the world marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, colloquially known as End Poverty Day. It’s an important date given major setbacks registered recently across the globe in the fight against poverty, and the ever-growing challenges facing humanity. Financing adaptation is still more cost-effective than frequent disaster relief.
These are some of the reasons why this year’s End Poverty Day is not the moment for celebration. This is the moment to reflect, regroup, and recommit to rebuild and increase resilience for future shocks because they will come.
Ending poverty starts with a conviction that poverty is not a fatality. Poverty can be defeated. It takes a combination of the right set of policies, attitudes, and commitment; it takes unquestionable conduct by all of us in the position of power; it takes transparency with and accountability to those we serve, and it takes moral principles of honesty and decency between public officials upon whom citizens bestow their trust. Only through those principles can we restore the social contract and trust in institutions that work for the majority and the most vulnerable, and not the few and well-off. To address poverty, it will take a vision, which should emanate from an open and engaging society, where solutions result from dialogue and constant engagement. Only through dialogue can we achieve greater inclusion, and can we build societies grounded on principles of equity, where institutions work for all, and where the economy is deliberately and resolutely broad-based in order to create jobs and achieve shared prosperity”
https://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/end-poverty-day-time-regroup-and-build-back-better
There are a number of takeaways from these impactful words.
Financing programs to create jobs and increase Income is paramount in the fight against poverty and is its knock-on effects. Combatting poverty is not only about handouts and giving charity. This whitepaper will present an alternative vision and suggest an approach that provides a safety net to investors and smallholders farmers alike to cooperate in a way based on the mutual interest to simultaneously profit by creating significant added value (and not by exploiting the other parties).
THE PROBLEM WE ARE SOLVING
There are 500 million smallholder farmers worldwide — more than 2 billion people depend on them for their livelihoods. Most of them live in poverty — in Africa and Asia. In some countries they comprise 70% of the population, contributing less than 10% of GDP.
Because of this poverty, there is also a lack of infrastructure leading to disease and health issues. A large majority of funds today are directed to fixing the symptom, but not the cause of the problem.
In addition, when initiatives are addressed to the cause of the problems, these solutions such as turnkey projects and providing fully subsidized technology, training, and guidance are inadequate and ineffective.
After many decades and billions of “wasted” $ invested, this has not resulted in solving extreme poverty.
Despite these efforts, Farmers have not benefitted economically.
What if we suggested that there is something that can you do and you can play a part to make a fundamental change in millions of people? You think we are crazy to even suggest this.
We would now like to suggest that there is a way forward.
For any initiative to be successful, it must provide a positive return on investment for all stakeholders.
CURRENT INITIATIVES AND GOALS
The fight against Poverty is led by the World Bank whose full name is the INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT (‘IBRD’). As the world’s largest development bank, IBRD provides financial products and policy advice to help countries reduce poverty and extend the benefits of sustainable growth to all of their people.
A look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The World Bank Group’s strategy is two goals endorsed by its Board of Governors in 2013:
• End extreme poverty by reducing the percentage of people living on less than US$1.90 a day to three percent; and
• Promote shared prosperity by fostering income growth for the bottom 40 percent of the population in every developing country by 2030.
To deliver on the twin goals that are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the WBG’s management and shareholders have agreed on three main priorities for our work with developing countries: (1) accelerate sustainable and inclusive growth, (2) invest in human capital, and (3) strengthen resilience.
This overarching strategic framework rests on four pillars: (1) serving all clients in low- and middle-income countries; (2) creating markets, mobilizing finance for development, and expanding the use of private-sector solutions; (3) leading on global issues; and (4) improving the ways we do business to be agile, efficient, and closer to clients.
The WBG’s goals, and the partnerships needed to achieve them, are aligned with the global community’s efforts to reach the SDGs by 2030. Adopted in 2015, the SDGs are a historic global achievement. They encompass 17 targets, in areas such as health, gender equality, jobs, energy, environment, infrastructure, poverty reduction, and partnerships, all as part of a comprehensive global agenda to end poverty in a single generation. The SDGs were formulated with strong participation from the WBG and are fully consistent with its twin goals.
In designing its projects and programs, the World Bank works closely with its member governments to assess each country’s trajectory for reaching the SDGs. This long-term dialogue and relationship produce a Country Partnership Framework identifying the country’s priorities and the expertise that the World Bank can provide to support the country’s efforts to improve performance in lagging sectors. The resulting process identifies World Bank activities to support the government’s development priorities, applying the World Bank’s comparative advantage in line with its development mission and the SDGs.
The rise of ESG
In recent years, there is a growing trend by investors and companies to adopt these UN SDG as part of the company’s core principles. This has led to a growing call of companies to adopt ESG — Environment, Social, and Governance as part of the Business culture.
Investors are stepping up their appeals for robust corporate sustainability reporting, with an increased focus on climate impact and net-zero targets. Currently, there are different approaches to ESG, and there is a growing movement of standardization, reporting, and measurement. This is being driven by Government Legislation, Investors — Stock Exchanges / Green Bonds, and the companies themselves who have realized embracing ESG is a win-win for all stakeholders including the customers and staff.
Many stakeholders have pressed companies to go beyond the standard ESG approach — which measures performance by limiting corporate impact — and explore ways actually to improve the world around them. To that end, there is an almost universal call to include the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an opportunity to guide companies toward areas of positive, measurable impacts.
Currently, most carbon offsets for companies to reach a net-zero target are applied to offsets in trees and other Renewable energy projects, we are proposing that these funds be applied to make an effective change in the fight against global poverty.
As will be seen we are proposing that the Investment of funds (focus on Investment and return of Investment (“ROI”)) has both an environmental and social impact, but also clear governance criteria.
Current Initiatives to fight poverty are not enough
There are many organizations dedicated to ending extreme Poverty, The leader in the pack is the World Bank.
You have many NGOs with great initiatives, One example is https://www.one.org/us
Let’s look at one of their “Victories”
https://www.one.org/us/take-action/victories/do-agric-it-pays
This victory was of ‘empty” promises.
Let’s look at reducing Stunting —i.e Malnutrition
In an article titled “All Hands on Deck: Reducing Stunting through Multisectoral Efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the scale of undernutrition is staggering; 58 million children under the age of five are too short for their age (stunted), and 14 million weigh too little for their height (wasted). Poor diets in terms of diversity, quality, and quantity, combined with illness and poor water and sanitation facilities, are linked with deficiencies of micronutrients — such as iodine, vitamin A, and iron — associated with growth, development, and immune function.”
Another example is https://www.1fortheworld.org
“At OFTW, we motivate our members to give 1% of their income to the world’s most cost-effective charities because focusing even a small portion of your philanthropy on effective giving can still produce massive impact.
They describe how to give effectively and say how they do things differently
OUR CHARITIES ARE UNBELIEVABLY IMPACTFUL
The charities in our portfolio not only provide solutions that sound good, but they provide interventions that have been proven, time and time again, to be the most effective at addressing critical human needs using randomized control trials and robust data analysis.
OUR CHARITIES ARE TRANSPARENT AND TRUSTWORTHY
Every charity in our portfolio has been deeply examined and rigorously reviewed by GiveWell, a top-ranked charity evaluator. Transparency is wholly necessary to receive a recommendation by Givewell. If we don’t know where our money goes, how do we know it’s doing good?
Our charities are all local and community-led.
So, basically, this organization relies on Givewall whose “The Maximum Impact Fund” is their top recommendation.
Our top recommendation to GiveWell donors seeking to do the best possible is to donate to the Maximum Impact Fund. Donations to the Maximum Impact Fund are granted each quarter. We use our latest research to grant the funds to the recommended charity (or charities) where we believe they’ll do the most good.
This Fund has given approx. US$100m over the last five years to fight Malaria.
Malaria is a deadly disease carried by Anopheles mosquitoes.
Every year, it kills around 430,000 people and infects more than 200 million. Ninety percent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite malaria mortality rates falling by 25 percent since 2000, a child in Africa still dies every two minutes from malaria.
https://www.givewell.org/maximum-impact-fund
The number of people who die from malaria each year has fallen by more than half since 2000, and many scientists, policymakers, and philanthropists say eradication is in sight. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed nearly $2 billion to antimalaria efforts, and Bill Gates has said he believes the disease can be wiped out by 2040. In 2015, the United Nations and Gates Foundation issued a road map to eradicating the disease that calls on world leaders to increase funding to public health efforts.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/can-malaria-be-eradicated
Malaria is most often found in warm, moist climates, in areas near standing water, where mosquitoes breed. The disease is often correlated with poor infrastructure and weak health systems
The Maximum Impact Fund as well as the top recommendations most direct funds to treat the symptoms without fixing the causes. This is a never ender cycle and is a reason why progress is slow.
In addition, these funds are directed to charities, but not necessarily to enterprises, businesses, or industries that can improve the livelihood of the people. Quoting the 12th Century Jewish Sage the Rambam (Maimonides)
“The highest form of charity is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will result in the recipient becoming self-sufficient instead of living upon others”
In conclusion, despite the best intentions, many of the funds are directed to treating the symptoms and not necessarily changing the facts on the ground by creating industries and basic living income to enable a better infrastructure of running water and basic health services.
And what is that industry in Africa?
This is Farming. Despite up to 70% of the population involved in farming, there is still widespread poverty and the resultant lack of infrastructure leading to diseases such as Malaria.
We will now propose a basic, yet revolutionary approach that changes this cycle of poverty and disease into prosperity.
The power to make a change
Peace, health, carbon reduction, racism, and fighting world poverty are the bye words of our society. There are many organizations devoted to these causes. It is what one could say is what makes the world go round.
Indeed, despite all the good intentions, money, and resources, we do not seem to be any closer to meeting these challenges. It seems that the whole world is driven by Tikkun Olam— repairing our broken world. (Tikkun Olam is an ancient Jewish expression and appears in the daily prayers and means to fix a world that is broken)
One thing we see in man is the power to influence. The strength of vision and persistence to carry this out. Today’s tech and businesses powerhouses ride on the shoulders of visionaries — Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerman, and Elon Musk just to name a few.
This phenomenon of the power of vision and the individual is not new, This is the story of the Bible with Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed being individuals who inspired global movements with the power of ideas. They all started from humble beginnings.
How many of these global start-ups were started in garages?
Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Amazon, Google — https://www.visualcapitalist.com/billion-dollar-companies-started-garages/
They all started small, but with persistence and dreams changed the world.
With this introduction, we have learned that anything is possible.
What is the secret of their success?
The 3 Secret Ingredients
- Technology,
- Business Model,
- Visionary Founder
Here we have the secret formula or ingredients to nurture a global power-house of change.
So, using this base, I want to look again at the problem of world poverty.
Who are the people affected most by this? And can we help them?
There are 500 million smallholder farmers worldwide — more than 2 billion people depend on them for their livelihoods. Most of them live in poverty — in Africa and Asia. In some countries, they comprise 70% of the population, contributing less than 10% of GDP.
http://messages.responder.co.il/6059263/468817239/157a0420df1a9420d5003dc8a85c35d3/?
So, after all these years, we have Green Valley. And the key challenge that we are addressing is world poverty and how we can make a fundamental change to improve the lot of smallholder farmer holders”
One key challenge of smallholder farming is that is not profitable.
Solution no 1 to this problem — choose crops with a high economic value — such as Mangos or Avocadoes
Solution no 2 problem — infestation, low output making farming yields very low.
Green Valley through its Biofeed ‘FreeDome” has been in successful use in the Mango Industry in Israel where it has contributed to the success of the Israeli Mangos who produce 50 tons per hectare.
The World average is 7.5 tons per hectare.
In Africa, before we brought in the “FreeDome” this was 1.5 tons per Hectare. We have succeeded already in increasing this to 5 tons per hectare.
Let us have a closer look at the Business Model.
As highlighted, for a business to succeed and make an impact, you need to benefit all stakeholders.
The Green Valley model seeks to do this by increasing the crop yield using technology, creating a premium brand i.e. Green Valley to achieve a higher price for the product and in this case Mangos.
This model makes perfect sense both in numbers, practicality, impact, and roll-out.
Going back to the concept of our dreams and visions it is easy to talk or write a blog, but there needs to be practical small steps the way to effect change is one step at a time.
Proof of concept in Senegal
- A large-scale African Project (2,500 hectares) of the Green Valley concept starting in 2018 and officially launched in the summer of 2021 in Senegal.
- The Kent mango export campaign with Green Valley Senegal was launched on National TV on Sunday 22 August 2021 in the village of Thissé (Commune de Pire)
- Green Valley is helping family farms to move from AGRICULTURE (poverty) to AGRO-BUSINESS (prosperity).
Further reading or watching:
http://messages.responder.co.il/6098325/468817239/157a0420df1a9420d5003dc8a85c35d3/
https://valuechainlinks.com/blog
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9N86AEX73bbmRaHuArqADZRvuADXpn4s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxp0nPlOCmA
https://nocamels.com/2018/08/fruit-fly-infestations-india-biofeed