Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Ecorich Solutions Limited is the first African startup that converts otherwise harmful kitchen waste into affordable organic fertilizer that is 75% cheaper than normal fertilizer, to enable African smallholder farmers to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
With an aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the use of synthetic fertilizers. We develop household waste decomposer devices and distribute them to urban homes for them to put their household waste. The devices use soil-based microorganisms to convert kitchen waste to organic fertilizer within 24 hours. We then collect this organic fertilizer from these households and distribute it to smallholder farmers in rural areas. Our organic fertilizer has proven to supply the required amounts of carbon with no excess left in the soil. We have worked towards the elimination of air pollution by standardizing our fertilizer by paying attention to total nitrogen content and fertilizer optimization.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Removes/stores GHGs (e.g., projects that capture, sequester, or otherwise enhance the "sinks" that accumulate and store GHGs)

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

We empower small scale farmers from the rural areas by availing affordable organic fertilizer that has organic matter that stores/sequesters carbon from the air which would have otherwise returned to the atmosphere as CO2. Fertilizer is a primary farm input that directly affects the cost of production, and with our organic fertilizer being 75% cheaper than normal fertilizers, we are able to reach the most vulnerable farmers and reduce their cost of food production

Our device converts food waste into organic fertilizer thereby minimizing risk exposure to vulnerable children, at the same time increasing food supply thereby maintaining their good health and well-being

By giving our decomposer to households, we are improving the livelihoods of vulnerable households within Slum in Nairobi through adoption of clean technology in waste management.

Poor waste disposal in slums has been the major cause of air and water pollution in the informal urban settlements, causing serious health problems example the spread of cholera. To solve this, we give our waste decomposer to households to recycle all their kitchen waste, hence 70% of waste is recycled.

Our solution also addresses the emission of greenhouse gases from dumpsites. According to UN-Habitat, at least 25% of today‚ global warming is driven by methane from food waste. As biodegradable organic waste decomposes, it releases methane gas that ends up absorbing heat contributing to climate change. Our decomposer device inhibits open field decomposition of large mass food waste in dumpsites that act as the biggest pollutants in urban informal settlements

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Mission Statement:

We started operations in Kiambu county due to the large population of smallholder farmers and the high demand for affordable fertilizer. Over the last few years, farmers in Kiambu just like in other regions of the country recorded a reduction in farm yields by up to 40% owing to the lack of affordable fertilizers with others opting to use expensive synthetic fertilizers which increased their cost of production by 51% hence recording lower profits and destroyed the soil structure. We are targeting to impact over 3 million smallholder farmers in Kenya by first scaling our innovation to regions in the central region with nutrient-rich organic fertilizer to increase farm yields by 30%. We intend to scale to Machakos, Murang'a, and Kirinyaga before scaling to the rest of the country.

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