DeCo! - Decentralized Composting for Sustainable Farming and Development

Increasing crop yields by promoting an organic fertilizer service
2010 SEED Award Winner Waste Management Tamale, Ghana

DeCo! offers a composting service to smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. DeCo! follows a low-tech approach and aims for scalability. The plants are run by highly educated local managers and DeCo! offers part-time work for local people during the off-farming season. DeCo! is a social business convinced of the benefits of compost, which addresses soil degradation and its associated local challenges by providing a composting service to smallholder farmers. Local people sell farm and household waste biomass to DeCo!. At a decentralized composting plant, the biomass of 3-6 surrounding villages is gathered and composted. DeCo! employs only local people who have no alternative work during dry season. the compost is then sold to local farmers who apply it before the sowing period. 

Eco-Inclusive Impacts
DeCo! addresses the issue of soil degradation and associated local challenges by providing a composting service to the smallholder farmers.
  • Using organic compost to increase agricultural yields, thereby reducing food shortages and improving food security.
  • Raising awareness fertilizer soil degradation, which is counteracted by organic compost.
  • Promoting organic compost which will contribute to decreased soil degradation, improved long-term environmental sustainability, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and improved soil productivity.
  • Strengthening the local economy in the long-run through sustainable social business solutions.
  • Providing capacity building and training and improving long-term agricultural productivity and sustainability.

Partners

This enterprise is supported through its partnerships with various stakeholders, ranging from national and international organisations, investors, research institutes, suppliers, governmental bodies, NGOs, other social and environmental enterprises and more.

SARI (Savanna Agricultural Research Institute): Fieldexperiments and advice.

University of Development Studies: Field experiments.

Regional office of MOFA (Ministry of Food and Agriculture): Field experiments.

B&S Consultancy: Promotion and marketing of theB&S Consultancy: Promotion and marketing of organic fertilizer.

Myclimate: Supports DeCo! to develop a CDM project based on the saved emissions through composting.

GIZ (German Development Cooperation): Development assistance.

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