River power and coconut fiber: The business of bringing light and life to poor coconut farmers in mountainous areas

The business model includes construction of micro power generator in the remote site, utilizing the river current as the source of energy. This generator will power a battery recharging facility. With inverters, the batteries will be distributed and be used by the poor people to provide lights for their household. A battery can provide household lighting for 1 to 2 weeks before it requires recharging.
Bringing lights to the poor coconut farmers in remote areas is the social service component of this proposal. However, in order to sustain this, there is a need to make the service a profitable business. The business component of this proposal is when the farmers avail the recharging services for their batteries. Since the farmers, my costumers, are poor and have no money, one may think this is not a viable business. On the contrary, my plan is feasible as I innovate on the paying scheme for the recharging services. The farmers need not pay money for recharging but they will pay using the fiber they process in their homes. The farmers have available labor and plenty of coconut husk to process coconut fiber. They will use these coconut fiber products as their payment for recharging their batteries. It will only take 4 hours to produce fiber products enough to pay for a recharging. The project is assured of regular costumers for recharging services because the farmers need to maintain their lightings, and the payment mode is made affordable to them.
The fiber products collected by the project will be sold to contracted companies. Many big companies are buying coconut husk fibers and the demand is much higher than the supply. Coconut fiber is a popular material used in conservation projects and in making environmentally friendly products. One advantage of this proposal is that our market for coconut fiber is already ensured as I have already identified and arranged with the fiber buyer offering the best buying price. The price will give the project enough profit margins to sustain and make the project a profitable business.

For my costumers in battery recharging facilities, reaching them will be very easy. Aside from the fact that my costumers are my partners in this project, they strongly desire to have lightings in their homes. We went to their sites and presented the project concept and details to them. The farmers are very happy to get lightings from us. To maintain their lightings, they need to do regular recharging, and they are willing to avail of our recharging services because payment is made affordable to them (in forms of fiber). Other battery re-charging establishments are very far from the site, and they demand money for payment. Their fee is also high because they have to pay for the electricity that powers their facility. In our project, the power is free because it will come from the river current, making our operation much cheaper.
I consider the farmers as both my costumers (for recharging facility) and my partner since they are the ones who will produce the fibers. In this case, they can also be considered as my “employees".
Other partners in this project includes an NGO and two private companies. The Navigators (NGO, with operation in the site) will provide the social preparation and value formation training. The Agrotech Engineering (Private, operating in the site) is also a partner who will manufacture and set up the river powered generator and battery recharging facility in the site. The other partner, the JOBUKEN Corp (Private, local buyer and user of fiber) will buy the fiber processed by the farmers. JOBUKEN will also provide the design of equipment for fiber processing to meet the fiber product specifications. Agrotech will manufacture the equipment.
In May 28, 2006, the World Bank has already chosen this project as a winner in their innovative development competition. I won $20,000 funding and I will start the project using this prize as my initial capital. The Philippine Coconut Authority will also be tapped for support just as what I did in my previous project. Counterpart funds will also be sourced from the existing local government’s development programs and from the partner organizations and other organizations interested to partner in this business.

In this business, the poor farmers will process coconut fiber not only to be able to pay for the battery recharging services, but also to get income. We will encourage them to produce more fibers which we will also buy from them. With this scheme, we expect to generate employment and income to 500-2000 households in the first 3 years, each household receiving more than $3/day, an income higher than ordinary in the site, and enough to support a family of 5. The demand for coconut fiber is high and still increasing. With this trend, and as this business will expand, it is expected to reach more remote villages to provide same direct employment and income to about 5000 households in the long term, benefiting about 25,000 people. The quality of living standards of the people will improve as a result of the increase in their income and the availability of lights. Lights will enable them to increase their working time, as well as studying, reading and leisure time. The batteries can also power small radio and TV, providing the people access to media/information.
Due to poverty, many poor coconut farmers in the target sites are also involved in illegal cutting of trees in the nearby forest. With this business, we also expect that the coconut fiber livelihood will provide income to these farmers enough for them to be weaned from their illegal logging activity. These people claim that they cut trees because they don’t have other livelihood opportunities. With the fiber livelihood and enough income from it, the people will no longer need to cut the trees. Therefore, this business also hopes to minimize, if not stop, illegal logging by addressing the root problem. This will conserve the forest in the site. It is also worth to note at this point that the coconut fiber processed in this business will be used in conservation projects, such as erosion control, river bank stabilization, etc. The poor farmers will now feel that they were once part of the deforestation problem, but now they are part of the conservation solution.