Grekkon Limited; Products Social Impact Write Up
1. Dam Liners
Damliners are geomembrane sheets used to line water reservoirs. During the rainy season in Kenya, it I estimated that 40% of rain water is wasted away as run-off. Grekkon Limited has been encouraging water conservation through the development of water reservoirs to catch rain water in the wet season, for use in the dry season. Our geomembranes hold this water in the reservoir for as long as the grower needs it.
Since mid-2017, we have supplied over 1,350 farmers, institutions, NGOs and corporates with geomembrane material for water conservation. On average, we supply enough dam liners to hold 18,000,000 liters annually. In our 50 months of geomembrane sales, we have helped farmers hold 900,000,000 liters of rain water which would have been lost as run-off. This amount of water is enough to grow food on 60,000 acres over a period of 180days/ 6 months, which is one season.
If maize was grown here, this would yield 35 bags per acre under this water’s irrigation, or 2,000,000 bags. The production cost per bag under irrigation is Kes 25,000 per acre or Kes 714.30 per bag, and the revenue is Kes 2,000 per bag, or Kes 70,000 per acre. This is a profit of Kes 45,000 per acre or Kes 1,285.70, or Kes 2,700,000,000 on 60,000 acres annually.
2. Irrigation systems
Our irrigation systems that work with water pumps have been supplied to over 6,700 farmers. An acre of maize produces 20 bags under rain fed farming. Under irrigation, this improves to 35 bags, or 15 bags more. Each bag (as illustrated in 1 above) has a profit of Kes 1,285.70, so an additional revenue of Kes 19,286 per season, per acre.
Farmers who install irrigation systems always hire a person or more depending on the area under production to manage the system. This creates direct employment opportunities for the semi or low skilled section of the population.
The additional production besides providing farmers with extra revenue is key to ensuring national food security.
3. Solar dryers
The international food policy research institute estimates (the report is attached) that Kenya experiences up to 50% post-harvest losses in horticultural crops, and 20% to 35% in cereals due to poor storage and handling.
It is with this in mind that that Grekkon Limited researched, designed, and commercialized solar dryers in 2018. These are tailored units to dry (highly perishable) food crops for farmers to sell as dried foods to market outlets.
Currently, the company sells units sufficient for 6 tons of produce per drying session monthly since 2019. The unit will dry 4 sessions per day, or 24 tons daily. This is 8,000 tons of horticultural produce. As a niche market, we expect this volume to grow ten-fold over the next 3 years.
The company trains local youth at village level to construct these dryers. This skill transfer is useful to provide them with a source of income every time a neighbor wants to set up a solar drying unit. Grekkon Limited supplies all the requisite material.