Two million Danish Kroner for converting nut shells into energy, fertilizer, and jobs
Access2innovation is happy to inform that we have received a grant of DKK two million from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Danida Green Business Partnership together with our partners. The money is for nuts! Or more accurately for an exciting Inclusive CO2 Sequestration in the Kenyan Nut Industry project for the next 18 months.
The objectives of the project are many: To validate the reduction of CO2 emissions by a new use of agri-waste, while creating jobs, increasing income, and improving livelihoods for nut farmers in coastal Kenya. The agri-waste comes from the production of nuts in Kenya. The shells from the nuts are currently left on the ground, creating CO2/methane emissions along with acid pollution of the soil.
By creating waste management hubs at nut processing sites, Danish pyrolysis solutions will produce biochar, ensure efficient electricity production, and eventually biofuel. The biochar will be used for soil improvement, increasing several things:
- Better cashew and coconut production because of the soil improvement
- Rising employment in the processing of nuts and the agri-waste, especially for women and youth
- Profit shares from CO2 credits
- Renewable energy production by Danish pyrolysis reactors at processing sites.
The project starts in April 2023 and the inclusive business cases are expected to be ready in September 2024, which hopefully will be apt for full scale implementation. Access2innovation will be the lead of the project, which will be carried out in cooperation with
MASH Makes
An Indo-Danish company that has generated a unique containerized pyrolysis reactor able to turn biowaste from agricultural production into CO2-negative biochar for soil improvement, production of electricity, and production of CO2-negative biofuel for the local and international market.
Farm Africa
An NGO working to reduce poverty in rural eastern Africa by helping farmers grow more, manage their natural resources better and sell their produces for more.
Grow Fairly Ltd
Grow Fairly is a Kenyan company working with smallholder farmers, and running a cashew nut processing plant, seedling nurseries and distribution as well as buying centres.
LM Africa Services Ltd
A post-harvest grain care equipment sales, installation, consultancy, and service support company with experience in the industry.
Immense triple bottom-line potential
“We are proud to facilitate a project with hopefully so many positive outputs for the nut farmers in Kenya but also for the women, the young, and the climate”, says CEO in Access2innovation, Karin Elisabeth Lind.
Jakob Andersen, CEO of one of the partners in the project, MASH Makes, adds:
“Eastern Africa has long been in MASH Makes’ sights as a market with immense triple bottom-line potential. For the same reason, we have been long-time members of Access2Innovation who also spearheaded this recently successful project application for the DGBP program. As partners in the project, we are very excited to investigate the potential of the Kenyan market together with Farm Africa, GrowFairly and LM Africa Services.”
For more info on the project, please contact CEO Karin Elisabeth Lind at kel@access2innovation.com
