July 9 - Tanzania

Having just come from the highlands of Ethiopia where mosquitos are less of an issue, I was surprised to find a netted canopy around each bed in our Arusha hotel. Ah yes. These evil little insects again...

More than simply a nuisance, the mosquitos here are killers. Currently, approximately 3 hundred million people contract malaria and over a million people die from it each year. While DDT spraying has virtually illiminated malaria from developed countries, places like Tanzania still face huge problems. It is said that one person in Africa dies every 30 seconds due to the disease.

Today, we visited AtoZ, the largest bed net manufacturer in Africa. In addition to making ordinary polyester nets, AtoZ manufactures special anti-malarial nets. During the manufacturing process, the nets are impregnated with a naturally occuring mosquito repellent that lasts up to six years! Unlike normal polyester nets, they do not need to be dipped in insect repellent every two years, and they are not toxic to touch. These are called Olyset Nets and were developed by Sumitomo Chemical, a Japanese company that offered a free technology transfer to AtoZ.

AtoZ has grown exponentially the past five years. They began Olyset production around 2003 and are already at a yield of 6 million nets annually, which amounts to about 18,000 nets per day! With the addition of a new factory outside of the main city (near the Arusha ariport), they are planning to phase out the old polyester nets all together and bring Olyset net production to 8.5 million annually!

AtoZ actually started in 1966 as a textile factory, with just 6 foot-pedalled sewing machines. So, why the switch to nets? There were several factors...1) a government-initiated secondhand clothing industry that drove anyone but traditional fabric-makers out of the Tanzanian textile industry (as a result, I have noticed that even very poor Tanzanians consistently outdress us); 2) NGO pressure to address the malaria issue; and 3) governmental support for a new factory for Olyset production (the government paid for 2 km of new road, electricity, and water costs of the new factory). In 1998, AtoZ first began stitching polyester bednets and by 2003 they started making the impregnated Olyset nets.

The greatest problem with the Olyset nets has been marketing and distribution. Although AtoZ is not keen on sharing the exact cost of goods, they say an average-sized net is around $8.50. With an income of less than a dollar a day, there's a very slim chance that a villager would buy an Olyset net. When and if they save that much money, they would most likely spend it on food or purchase the cheaper polyester nets. However, polyester nets need to be dipped in pesticides every two years to be effective and cuurent statistics show that only 2% of villagers will reapply the mosquito repellent.

Although the upfront cost of the Olyset net is high, when spread over six years, the cost of Olyset nets is cheaper than the polyester nets. This makes microfinance look like a great partner for AtoZ. If AtoZ could join with an MFI to provide loans to be paid back over the course of several years, Olyset nets suddenly become affordable to the average villager. Now that manufacturing is in place (and inventory is really stocking up), it will be interesting to see what marketing and distribution model AtoZ adopts.

Even though it seems that AtoZ is taking a huge risk with all its capital investments for Olyset production (and no crystal clear distribution network), AtoZ certainly hasn't put all its eggs in one basket. In fact, they manufacture many other products, including plastic buckets, t-shirts, and bottled water (everything from A to Z). They even manufacture their own biomass blocks to feed into a furnace that runs the plant! The factory is a huge facility and employs about 4,000 Tanzanians, which is very valuable in itself as unemployment is a big issue here.

Before leaving AtoZ, we bought some subsidized Olyset nets to give as thank you gifts to those villagers that we would visit later today and tomorrow. There is actually a special line of subsidized nets (made possible by the Acumen Fund). These are only $5 and they are distinguished by their blue and white stripes. Speaking of colors, if you visit the AtoZ showroom, you can find Olyset nets of every color. However, for the moment, only the blue dye has been tested and approved by Sumitomo Chemicals.

Before getting lunch, we also visited the Arusha market to bargain for 100kg of sugar (another gift for the villagers we will be interviewing tomorrow). Sugar is a nice commodity they can rarely afford and something they really enjoy. In the Arusha marketplace, everyone calls out "Jambo!" If you're a woman, you become "sister" or "mama", and everyone is eager to point out the obvious, calling out, "Jambo, mama! This is a grapes. Please, this is mango. Here you see we have beans." Charly, Alex, and I stuck close together to brave the crowds as Keely bargained a good price for the sugar. After all our purchases, we looked like a bit of a clown car - how much sugar, bednets, and humans can you fit inside one land cruiser?

Luckily, we split into two cars for our afternoon adventures, which helped alleviate the space problem. At around 2PM, we went to the Technoserve office. Technoserve is an organization that helps create business solutions to rural poverty and has branches in South America, Poland, and parts of Africa. They are currently working with farmers outside Arusha to convert from comodity-grade to highly profitable, specialty-grade coffee. Technoserve also helps farmers grow artemisia, a high-value crop that is used to make malaria medications. Ironically, this malaria medication will most likely never be affordable to any of these villagers, but selling it drastically improves their standard of living.

At the Technoserve office, we were introduced to Matt, our guide for the afternoon. His unruly sandy-colored hair, wild sideburns, and wrinkley tanned skin give away his love of the outdoors and hint at his dislike for paperwork. Charly and I hopped into Matt's car and Keely, Alex, Tom, and Favian (our driver) caravaned behind us. As we drove out to visit some of the Technoserve artemisia growers, Matt started some "story talk", as he says. Matt is quite an interesting character. He was raised in Kenya and though he tried to live in Ireland for a while, he says the people were less friendly and he missed Africa's never-ending plains and open spaces. Even though he has two young children in Ireland, he couldn't live there and eventually came back to Africa. As far as women are concerned, Matt says he just can't seem to hang onto them. Indeed, he's never married, though he also has one other daughter who is now 21.

We drove past the harsh, eroded landscape, waving villagers, and plains that stretch out forever in front of us (literally as far as the eye can see). Matt went to college in South Africa, intending to study agroforestry and eventually settled on agro-management. He has many interesting ideas about land degredation, how to stop it, and where most NGOs are going wrong. I agreed with a lot of what he said - that we can't only address the effects of poverty such as malaria and lack of education as so many NGOs are doing, but we also need to address the root causes: poor income generation, land degradation, and over-population. At the heart of most problems is the fact that the land has reached its carrying capactiy and the villagers are still operating as they have for thousands of years...even as grazing land turns to dust and farmland turns into steep, eroded ravines. How can they pay for medicine and education when their land is over-taxed and can not be used to create an adequate income?

Technoserve advises farmers on how to obtain more profitable yields from their crops. A lot of this includes educating them about how to curb soil erosion and land degradation. In each region they operate in, Technoserve chooses one or two entrepreneurial villagers to act as models and mentors for the region. For example, we visited one villager who is currently building a second house with all the profits he is earning. He grows artemisia, has his own artemisia nursery to sell seedlings to other farmers and gives them advice, and plants grasses between his fields to prevent erosion.

Technoserve started the Artemisia cultivation program among small farmers in March 2005. It began with 600 farmers and now supports 4000 farmers and benefits up to 24,000 individuals. In 2006 alone, the artemisia harvests yielded $370,000 additional farmer income and about 5.6 million malaria cures. We visited another plot of land where villagers were starting to harvest the artemisia crop. Unfortunately, they were not using the best methods of harvesting. They had simply chopped the artemisia plants and let them fall over to dry. But as the leaves dry, the wind blows some leaves away from the exposed top side and on the bottom side, dirt contaminates the harvest. It is better to cut the bushells, collect them, and stand them together in teepee-like piles. The sloppiness we saw may be a result of having only one buyer in the region. Without lots of competition, the buyer has become a little more relaxed and does not religiously check on its growers to maximize efficiency.

However, it is increasingly important for small farmers to streamline and perfect the artemisia harvesting process because synthetic Artemisinin is in the research pipelines and will probably start being produced in the far east by 2012. In order to compete with upcoming low synthetic prices, small farmers will need to have very clean, productive growing strategies.

As it grew dark, we parted ways with Matt, who lives on the other side of Arusha. Over dinner at Via Via, Charly, Alex, Tom, and I discussed the long-term sustainability of artemisia-growing. For the moment, it is a good business. In the future, I don't think it will be, but at that point, Technoserve will jump in and suggest more innovative business ideas for those entrepreneurial villagers that are ready to take them on.