ABOUT THE TROPICAL HORTICULTURE FOUNDATION
The Tropical Horticulture Foundation (THOF) is a youth organization in the Central African Region based in Cameroon with a dual facet. Its forms are embedded in Charity and Social Enterprising for the development of human capital and improve livelihood in the organization’s targeted communities. In terms of Charity, we build capacities and provide free food for the needy and improve nutrition for children and nursing mothers through gifts and training modules. In the sense of Social enterprising, we build resilient communities to become food self-sufficient, increase networking between farmers, change the status-quo within the sphere of agriculture and youth unemployment.
THOF is predominantly made up of young professionals seeking a solution to Africa’s contemporary problems which centers around unemployment and food security. THOF has a multi-disciplinary team of volunteers; we transform communities and people through outreach education, capacity development in various entrepreneurial domains relating to the food system.
Our team is practically oriented in all aspects of operations. We are experienced in tropical production and marketing of fresh quality farm produce, landscaping and urban conservation, ecological farming, floristry, and recreation, hence our mentees are making strides wherever they lead. By this, we emphasize training and mentorship in areas where little or no capital to kickstart agribusiness is needed. We are change-makers.
At THOF
We Believe In
SUSTAINABILITY
We are Committed to promoting environmentally friendly practices that ensure the long-term health and productivity of our ecosystems.
INNOVATION
Encouraging creative and modern approaches to horticultural practices to enhance efficiency, productivity, and impact.
EMPOWERMENT
Providing resources, and support to individuals, especially the youth, to help them achieve economic independence and personal growth through horticulture.
Agriculture to many seems to be the easiest and last option when everything else has failed. I believe strongly that there is more to it, thus being a science discipline, we should be cautious on our understanding and decision before delving into agriculture. I believe a ‘Famer to a Crop’ is likened to a ‘Medical Doctor to Patient’ who treats by carrying out the diagnosis of disease and writing the correct prescription for the identified ailment before the Pharmacist interprets and provides the correct medication for that ailment. So too, a farmer must be able to understand the disease affecting the crop on the field and thereby making the right prescription before the Chemical-store-vendor provides the right chemical for the treatment of the disease. If not, the wrong diagnosis will result in serious damages and financial loss. This can greatly discourage the farmer or investor; a clear indicator that skillful & innovative minded persons are needed in the sector
What Our Numbers Say
We are heavily involved in so many projects with an amazing team. Here are our numbers all put together over the past years.
Brief History About THOF
THOF was created in October 2016 as a body to set the pace for youths in modern agriculture by creating an enabling environment and increase networking between groups in the region as well as the globe. After a year of existence, on October 23rd, 2017 the organization obtained authorization (registration number 886/G.37/C.84/VOLII/SASC) from the Government of Cameroon to carry out development activities as a Non-Profit Making Organisation. Hence, THOF is operating in conformity with Article 7, Law No. 90/053 of 19/12/90 relating to the creation and functioning of associations.
The organization by 2016 had six volunteers who started the first vegetable demonstration farm of about a quarter hectare. From this point, she built a relationship with other institutions, groups, and individuals with more resources such as land and facilities to train these volunteers and more, thereby setting the pace for them to kickstart the agriculture venture. Within two years, the organization trained more than 50 young Cameroonians on vegetable production and marketing in the Southwest Region of Cameroon alone and she plans to extend to other regions of the country. In 2018, THOF became pioneered a network of young practical farmers in Cameroon. This platform brought other organizations together employing the best of techniques and sharing best practices in sustainable production. As of January 2019, she began expanding tentacles in other areas of operation such as snail and bee farming; making her training and mentorship more diverse and attractive to more youths particularly women and young girls.
Philosophy
Agriculture for centuries to the present day in Cameroon and Africa has been championed by non-professionals. This implies at present circumstance, about 90% of our food production is mainly produced by people with no formal training in agriculture. Most often these non-professionals use obsolete techniques and poor technology. The result of this is poor harvest and low quality, thus making most communities wallop in extreme poverty.
Our goal is to drive a change by training, mentoring, and involving skillful and vibrant youths in modern production. Besides, employ sustainable low-cost techniques for the improvement of income and accountability in agriculture systems. We believe the youths have the mindset to venture into the sector but will need a pulling factor (something that attracts) which we have understood to be the use of modern technology and assurance of greater income for a better life. To accomplish this, we focus on training youths in practicing modern agriculture techniques using low-cost adapted technology that has proved successful in other parts of the globe.
The injection of entrepreneurial capacity in the minds of these youths is one key facet as they will have to practice agriculture business and become Agripreneurs capable of making a quality living from agriculture. We believe and understand the agriculture sector has unlimited opportunities and space to accommodate most of these unemployed youths on our continent today.
“Amplifies the farmers’ voice in promoting trade, technology, sustainable farming, economic growth, and food security.” ∼ Global Farmer Network
THOF is predominantly made of young dynamic Cameroonians from diverse disciplines yawning to improve the status of local food systems. These include professionals with the following background: Ecology and Biodiversity, Botany and Horticulture, Animal Production, Agriculture, Agronomy, Fisheries, Economics and Law as well as Local Agriculture Practicing Farmers.
FOCUS AREAS AT THOF
We believe these three facets are pillars to successful entrepreneurship. Hence, to complete our program we walk the individual through the three steps. Our understanding from field experience shows that most young starting farmers/agriculture business owners have limited access to vital services like these.
Mentoring helps a mentee to develop social capital to complement their development of technical and intellectual capital. This is all about providing professional guidance and support to early-career farmers or agripreneurs. The main goal of this focus area is to assign a mentor to a young farmer leading them to take the necessary steps needed to pursue their goals as an agriculture entrepreneur. The process of mentoring involves a mentor and a mentee which in the modern sense is reciprocal i.e. takes two ways (back-n-forth). It is an exchange process where the two parties involved benefit immensely from the relationship. In other words, a mentor contributes something to the life of an early career farmer and vice versa.
Peer Mentoring:
In addition to having a mentor-and-mentee relationship, there is the second level of relationship known as Peer Mentoring; here an early career farmer will be connected to a peer within the foundation network for exchanges as well. It is presumed that talking to a peer will help build confidence in early career mentees as peers are usually young and within the age group of an early career farmer. This focus area helps early-career farmers/agripreneurs to know those in their age group who are actively making progress in agriculture business.
Counselling in agriculture entrepreneurship is inevitable because agriculture is a domain with huge challenges. These challenges are usually not static, although some may be recurring the early-career farmer or young agripreneur may not have the experience to deal with some of the peculiarity of these issues. At times seeking external help may be the best solution, by inviting an agriculture counsellor to advise on the current happening. It may be an issue of diseases or management or some accounting detailing, these are real issues that our foundation helps early-career farmers to deal with thereby avoiding huge loss in business.
According to the online platform Investopadia “Networking is the exchange of information and ideas among people with a common profession or special interest, usually in an informal social setting”. Therefore, our goal is to facilitate this aspect of the agriculture business among early careers and investors in the sector. Networking is a strong tool in the development of every sector and to expand a little, it usually begins with a common point of interest and grows into a large web of professionals and investors. In a nutshell, it improves the strength of every sector as many skillful persons are acting to solve a common problem. Networking brings about partnership development and bigger investment, so we drill our mentees and members to develop the sense and responsibility of a healthy network.
“Communication – we can’t resolve problems if we don’t know about them. This is part of doing science. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. That too is part of doing science” Richard A. Wable, PhD
Agriculture is one of those sectors in every society that has the potential to absorb an infinite number of persons as there exist many different subsectors and activities for anyone to fit in (niche availability). A modest way for one to get a meaningful solution in the agriculture domain is to think creatively and build a resilient enterprising ability. Thus, at the Tropical Horticulture Foundation, we know how to help early careers and young investors build attitudes towards the agriculture business. Many people think that Africa has got untapped resources; the Tropical Horticulture Foundation shares this view and we think the agriculture sector in Africa is one of such sectors which has not been fully exploited. Our interest in horticulture and other subsectors in agriculture is to fully harness the potential and build human capital around it. Therefore, the horticulture sector being at the foundation level (very much undeveloped) is a great area to venture as a smart entrepreneur ready to take the risk and change the present state of things. Here we focus our energy to make the youths see the present potentials of these subsectors, the future growth in terms of quality services and resilience.
We strongly advocate and promote social justice to create the necessary equity and balance in society where farmers and other actors in the food system will enjoy an equitable share of the resources and benefits. We believe society will only function best when everyone accesses a fair share of the opportunities a sector can provide in every sense. Hence, social justice in this sense means breaking all barriers that limit individuals or institutions to receive the basic benefits including quality market, fair distribution of wealth and equal opportunities for our farmers and actors in the food system.
One of our main objectives is to improve perception and help change policy at all levels. At the Grassroot level, we focus on mainstreaming agriculture in the youthful population. Similarly, we strongly believe that policy change will encourage youths to venture into agribusiness. Furthermore, we are conscious of the fact that policy change must be accompanied by lobbying and advocacy campaign, so we are committed to building capacities of young agripreneurs that will champion some of these changes at the grassroots, national and regional level.
“Africa has the potential to become the world’s powerhouse in agriculture and can play a dominant role in feeding the world. To realize that, we need leadership from African governments and partnership with the private sector”. IFAD
The research component for our organization is a fundamental pillar. We strictly commit to building the Citizen Science approach in food system research. This is crucial for us to understand and build a better database of common challenges especially during this era of climate modification where certain diseases and environmental conditions turn to record unusual scenarios. Therefore, using Citizen Science and community engagement methods in tackling these challenges, we are sure of better field reports and faster analysis. This will safeguard stronger communities and resilient production systems.
Want to Work With Us?
Get In Touch!
Phone
(+237) 655888222 / 699988714
tropicalhorticulturefoundation@gmail.com
Address
Cameroon – Southwest Region – long street Buea