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Social enterprise help needed !!
http://byap.backyardmagazines.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=27998		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  enactussheffield [ Nov 28th, '16, 06:59 ]
Post subject:  Social enterprise help needed !!
My team, based at the university of Sheffield is looking to set up a social enterprise in the developing wold. We urgently need help with our research. If you care about helping those less fortunate than your selves and can spare 20 minutes to offer your expertise we would really appreciate it if you could post below or private message me so that we can set up a Skype call at your convenience. Thank you in advance
Author:  nosliwmas [ Nov 29th, '16, 07:18 ]
Post subject:  Re: Social enterprise help needed !!
Enactus,

If you want to get much of anything in the way of replies, I suspect you'll need to provide quite a bit better detail. For example, I live in what Europeans would call the developing world and consider myself much more fortunate than most Europeans, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't take a free bag of dog food if someone gave me one. Some of the most popular social enterprises in my part of the developing world are whorehouses. Now who doesn't like a good whorehouse nearby? But maybe not everyone feels that way... See what I mean? :dontknow:

What kind of "expertise" are you talking about? What exactly are you trying to do?

--
Sam
Author:  enactussheffield [ Nov 29th, '16, 22:26 ]
Post subject:  Re: Social enterprise help needed !!
Thank you for your response , I am new to this forum so appreciate your advice. To clarify we are currently looking to implement our system in Ghana. We are looking to subsidise school fees by selling produce from our ap system based at the school to local hotels or restaurants. To clarify we are not going to set up a whore house. We are looking for people with a range of expertise in ap as well as people who have implemented the system in similar climates to Ghana and people who have worked on commercially scalable systems .
Thanks.
Author:  nosliwmas [ Nov 30th, '16, 01:31 ]
Post subject:  Re: Social enterprise help needed !!
enactussheffield wrote:
To clarify we are currently looking to implement our system in Ghana. We are looking to subsidise school fees by selling produce from our ap system based at the school to local hotels or restaurants. To clarify we are not going to set up a whore house. We are looking for people with a range of expertise in ap as well as people who have implemented the system in similar climates to Ghana and people who have worked on commercially scalable systems.

I know some of those whacky Aussies will be quite disapointed to hear about the whore house... :support: :)

So what is the climate like in Ghana?

There are a few on this forum setting up new Aquaponics systems in Costa Rica and in Panama, and several well established systems in Thailand that would probably be in similar climates -- or at least a similar latitude. I think there might be one or two in Zambia as well. There are many more further away from the equator which might have similar climates for parts of the year, like northern Australia, India, Jamaica, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, as well as Texas, Florida, Southern California and the in the southeastern parts of the USA. I would suggest asking your questions here on this forum to generate discussion. There are plenty of experts around who know about how to deal with climates they don't actually reside in.

What is the business plan you have for marketing the fish and produce?

--
Sam
Author:  dlf_perth [ Nov 30th, '16, 10:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Social enterprise help needed !!
might sound tough but we have been down this path before in the forum.

What is the income objective and what from.....
What is the break up between fish income and vegetable income ?
And what are the overarching objectives if any (eg healthy eating etc)
Is it to be commercially run (ie. by trained people) or is it something that the students do on the side ?

While the FAO produces a nice little small system AP idea that many have jumped aboard the reality is that most/many aquaculture and aquaponic initiatives fail to be sustainable let alone profitable.
Running a technological-biased system is much different in the first world than it is in the developing world.

Simply browsing the pages of this forum raises the primary issues - add some seasol, get some clay media, get an xxx pump and make sure you have air 24/7, use a high quality fish food etc etc - these are all things that are much harder in a developing world scenario and may not even have viable local alternatives.

It may be that (a) wicking beds or similar that allow the use of organic inputs may be a better option for similar water demand and much more compatable with traditional horticultural activities.
(b) there may be more effective ways at conducting aquaculture than a tank based setup. Adapting local practices may be much more conducive to the types of fish and expertise available in the local area.

This has been thrashed out in a forum before.....
and inevitably for 90% of cases the expectations for aquaponics has been oversold.

This couples with the issue that some things in developing countries that significantly affect human health can be exacerbated in recirculating systems or accumulated in table fish (you mention selling to hotels and restaurants..). Some of the materials used/substituted can end up being toxic or carcinogenic....

the other aspect is that Ghana is sub-tropical and this adds levels of complexity regarding what can be grown and susceptibility to parasites, pests and pathogens and issues of temperature and humidity management

>> people who have worked on commercially scalable systems .

be very careful with this concept/notion. A small system is a small system. A backyard system is a backyard system. A commercial system is a commercial system. They bear very little relation to each other.

>> based at the school to local hotels or restaurants

this is the biggest issue in your brief precis IMO. Delivering to commercial demands associated with clients that require reliable and guaranteed supply most likely with over-arching health regulations involved is a chasm compared to a simpler objective like - "we want the students to have access to healthy food and subsidise their lunches" (there are school/community/boutique systems on this forum that might achieve this latter objective for example).

sorry to appear negative but there are lots of great ideas floating around that don't end up delivering.
Education is a very real issue that should be supported and one very much worth supporting.
It is better to deal with the hard parts early on and ideally beforehand, rather than being unprepared after peoples expectations have been built up.
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