ACADER, which stands for “Association Camerounaise de Développement Rural”or “Cameroonian Association of Rural Development” is a small, rural NGO based and working in Center province in equatorial area of Cameroon. ACADER’s mission is to : promote and enhance sustainable agriculture and forestry in Cameroon. Esse is a hilly area, with productive soil, and the main crops grown in this area are cocoa, cassava, plantain, bean and maize. One initiative of ACADER is to promote high quality composting to increase land productivity to meet the needs of a growing population, to reduce the use of chemicals for environmental and health reasons, and to reduce poverty. By early 2006, ACADER had understood the fertilizer use patterns among farmers – some use manure, some chemicals and some both, and had developed and tested an improved compost based on locally available materials such as cocoa plant waste and manure. In 2006, staff conducted market assessment on the fertilizer market and devised a strategy for developing a market for compost so that compost would become readily available to large numbers of farmers on a sustainable basis. The business model includes several layers of entrepreneurs, farmers groups and employees, as follows:
ACADER trains compost trainers for a self-sustaining fee.
Compost trainers raise awareness among farmers groups about the importance of compost and about the business opportunity of composting;
Farmers interested in making and selling compost pay compost trainers a fee, and compost trainers provide training on a profitable basis;
Compost trainers also train interested farmers groups or entrepreneurs to construct and run compost storehouses;
Compost makers create and package compost on their farms, over a 3 month period;
The compost is stored by area farmers groups in a storehouse for a fee.
Compost makers hire unemployed youth to sell and deliver compost to neighboring farmer on commission;
Compost makers visit customers to help advise on how to use compost, to see how the compost is working and get feedback to improve quality of compost.
Compost trainers continuously seek new geographic areas to reach to introduce the business to new farming communities, and they seek ongoing advice from ACADER.
ACADER will then undertake the same process with additional extension services.
ACADER expects to train compost trainers and reach 30 compost makers, 3 farmers group, 6 compost deliverers, and 93 actual target farmers. This program will cost ACADER ($ 868.736 per SHG) and will be accomplished in less than a year. It is funded by ( Shareholders) .

For one campaign:
- Number compost makers:10
- Numbers of marketers :2 + one entrepreneur
- Total cost =$868.736=$789.76+ overheads(10%)
-
To be realistic, to cover the demands of the 93 actual target farmers, three groups (30) of Compost makers will be involved, this will lead to a total cost of $ 2606.20.