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Why Villages First?

Today’s favored Third World development strategies focus on urban-centered, capital intensive, large-scale industrial projects that seek to quickly launch products and services directly into the global marketplace. After 50 years of development programs and billions of dollars of aid, we have seen mixed results. Often such large-scale ambitions will benefit a few elite and their multinational partners, but little advantage “trickles down” to the general population.

In contrast, Western economic development began in Europe during the Middle Ages in small, independent villages. A combination of improved land tenure, innovative production technologies and opportunity for local and foreign trade, fostered an environment of increased productivity, entrepreneurship and specialization that led to economic growth. Development began in the rural areas and spread to, and indeed created and enlarged, urban areas.

The Villages First Initiative is not anti-urban or anti-big, but hopes to draw attention to the importance of rural areas to a country’s sustained development. Development strategies that are urban biased cast the rural resource into the shadows, often seeing rural development as a costly, political necessity and a drain on the value produced in urban centers. Yet, as history has shown, rural communities can make an important contribution to growth and development.

Linking remote communities with the modern global network of trade and communication will bring opportunities for exchange and mutual benefit. As productivity and exchange increase, not only will human welfare improve, but new markets will arise for goods and services. Back to top

TropicTech Ltd.

What Makes Us Different?

Just as politics and values are local, we believe successful businesses are local. The Villages First Initiative is “grass roots” in that local economic development is the focus, and “global” because through this campaign international resources are made available to remote communities. As in Medieval Europe, small improvements in productivity combined with opportunities to exchange, can foster the development of local business clusters that give stability to a small, local economy – within a village and between associated villages. Further, the opportunity for foreign trade enhances this local economy.

We believe the following to be key to success;

• Local human resource development
• community participation in development planning and decision-making
• forethought, vision, sustained improvement and ongoing accountability to local stakeholders
• sustaining local social institutions
• transforming of foreign technologies to match local needs and abilities
• increased opportunities for exchange, both local and at a distance
• demand-based development

Our business model supports these objectives. TropicTech plays a central role in providing foreign-sourced technologies, training and management systems that enhance productivity and exchange. We also find export markets for locally produced goods, connecting foreign buyers with local producers. TropicTech serves as a portal for the import and export of technologies, goods and training, working in synergy with local member agents (individuals, families, clans, and local cooperatives) and associates (governments, non-government organizations, transnational corporations, and organizations, local businesses, churches, and community associations, and other stakeholders).

Rural communities have the potential to develop economically without the social and environmental problems with which urban development struggles. Villagers have strong social relationships that foster caring for others and sharing in times of need. They have a connection to place that protects the natural environment. When the local community is involved in planning development, social and environmental sustainability is a primary consideration. Back to top

Projects

Village Coconut Oil Production

The production of coconut oil at the village level provides a value-added product for export and internal trade. Once village production begins, coconut oil may be used as a stock material for a diversity of products; soap, cooking oil, lamp oil and as the main precursor for coconut oil-based biodiesel. Biodiesel represents a local and renewable energy source that opens the door to village electrification, small-scale manufacturing, and cooking and vehicle fuel.

For several years, TropicTech has been working to develop an appropriate small scale method for the production of coconut oil at the village level.  In order to bring sustained development, the technology is required to be;

• Affordably priced and efficient.  With average monthly cash incomes of $100 per rural household, the currently available ‘appropriate’ technologies costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars are not affordable.  Ideally the need to dry the coconut before processing should be avoided.  Drying requires fuel and adds significant labour to the process.  The technology should be able to extract 80-90% of the oil from the coconut.  The cost of production, including equipment depreciation, repairs and maintenance and all labour costs, should allow oil to be produced at a cost that allows a reasonable selling price (to local buyers) and a good return on the labour and investment.
• Locally produced and maintained.  The design should allow value-adding by being at least partly produced in rural communities.  This also facilitates local repair and avoids abandonment of the equipment due to costly and difficult to obtain replacement parts and repairs.
• ‘Plug-and-Play’.  In order to disperse easily, the technology must be simple to understand and operate.
• Gender and Equity-friendly.  Ideally, the technology should be usable by anyone, and available for anyone to use – not only males, the educated or the wealthy.
• Stand alone.  Remote communities very seldom have access to electricity and other amenities available to urban areas.  The technology must be non-electric, require little, if any, processing water or specially built shelter.

TropicTech has developed a technology that meets these requirements.
The coconut oil press pictured here will be cast in iron (press pictured
is cast in aluminum) by a village metal worker using specially developed
patterns and techniques, including a small scale furnace.  The press will
sell for $70-80, is easily hand-cranked, and capable of extracting 2 liters
of coconut oil per hour. The process involves three steps; (i) opening
the coconut and‘scratching’ the meat in order to shred and remove it
from the shell (a suitable bush knife and coconut scraper are common
household items), (ii) pressing of the coconut to squeeze out the
coconut cream, and (iii) separation of the oil from the water using
a simple fermentation method (requires no electricity, heat
treatment, centrifuge equipment or imported substances).

Select to enlarge TropicTech’s small scale coconut press.  The oil shown was obtained from one medium coconut and has not been filtered, refined, bleached or deodorized.

At a selling price of only 50 cents per liter of oil, this method almost
doubles the value of a villager’s coconut resource.  Currently,
‘green copra’ (fresh coconut meat) sells for 8 cents per kilogram. 
With the same labour required to produce one kilogram of green
copra, a villager can produce 300 ml of oil worth 15 cents – a 7 cent
add to value.  At 50 cents per liter, locally available coconut oil allows
import substitution of kerosene for lighting (typically $2.00 per liter)
and cooking oil ($2.00 per liter).  Local soap-making also becomes
possible, with better quality and less expensive local soap substituting
imported soap.

The technology may be scaled up to 7-8 liters per hour and form the
basis of a family enterprise or a village cooperative producing virgin
coconut oil for export to urban centers (and beyond) or as a feedstock
for local biodiesel production and a large variety of other products
appropriate for small scale, village enterprises. Back to top  

People

Dale Hampshire, President, TropicTech Ltd. Since starting his first business in 1983, Dale has been involved with new businesses and growing businesses for more than twenty years. Eight of those years were spent working in the island nation of Vanuatu (Southwest Pacific) where he established Vanuatu Coconut Products, a coconut-based soap-making factory producing 25 tonnes of bar soap per month for the local market. Educated at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, Dale has an MBA, with a specialization in sustainable development. His undergraduate degrees are in Education and Science. Contact:dale.hampshire@villagesfirst.com

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