Draper Richards Foundation

Komaza
Tevis Howard
Fellowship Awarded 2008

KOMAZA works to unlock the economic potential of tree farming to generate life-changing income for rural families living in absolute poverty. Millions of African families struggle to survive by farming traditional food crops ill suited to their dry semi-arid environments. With inadequate food yields and no cash income, these rural families are unable to attain the most basic assets and opportunities required for a secure and prosperous life.

KOMAZA (Swahili for "promote development; encourage growth") generates unprecedented income for rural families by planting Eucalyptus as a high-value cash crop. Eucalyptus farming is a low-risk and high-profit investment, ideally suited to semi-arid environments. KOMAZA extends the total tree farming value chain to the poorest families by providing: farm inputs on credit, education for tree planting and maintenance, and complete value capture services (tree harvesting, value-adding processing, and output marketing). By providing fallow land and simple labor, families will receive increasing installments of total life-changing income, enabling diverse investments in comprehensive and catalytic life-improvements.

Tevis Howard is the Founder and Executive Director of KOMAZA. Tevis graduated from Brown University in 2007 with a Sc.B. in Neuroscience. His enthusiasm and vision for KOMAZA derived from several trips to Kenya doing malaria research in Kilifi, one of the poorest, least-developed, and agriculturally inadequate districts in Kenya. He is a 2008 Rainer Arnhold Fellow. Read more about KOMAZA at www.komaza.org.

We don't know who we are until we see what we can do--Martha Grimes