Tomatoes From The Green House-From Vision to Mission-It is Harvest Time

First crop of tomatoes from Happy Farms Greenhouse  Cameroon        

   In 2008, I had a vision - A vision to impact the lives of millions of Cameroonians by 2018.
I had as mission to use a bottom-up approach to create sustainable solutions and business models that will engage and enable the bottom pyramid to become self sustainable.
I had as objective to create cross linkages between Universities, corporations and communities at home and abroad.
The goal was to transfer knowledge and technology solutions that could be adapted for our local communities in Cameroon.
I had the conviction that a solution that works in Cameroon will work in most of West Africa and why not Africa. There’s a reason they say, “Cameroon is Africa in miniature”.

In 2009, I came up with the first solution –but, I was told that it was a good solution but I could not deploy that solution in Cameroon.

From Green to red to Money . 

In 2010, I found a second solution. I engaged a team and we traveled to Cameroon for testing and market penetration. But, we faced a lot of cultural, administrative and market barriers.
In 2011, I took time off to reflect on my solutions and my agenda for Cameroon. I decided to get back into corporate America. But soon realized that corporate America wasn't for me, again, and I wasn't about the American dream but the African dream. The dream that someday, Africa will feed Africa and the rest of the world: hunger and poverty will become topics of the history books.
In 2012, I went back to the fields. I lived and mingled with the people. I needed to understand the foundation of the problems they face. I got a local team along with my teams of foreign students to comb through the community and find clues about the magnitude of the problems and the voids that exist. Later that year, I stumbled upon a diamond in the rough – it was a tentative solution to the crisis.
In 2013, the solution was deployed and then developed for our local community. The solution was the “affordable greenhouse’ locally known as the ”HAPPY FARMS’ greenhouse. We built one and planted our first batch of tomatoes.
After 2months and 3 weeks we are harvesting….. harvesting what we call “organic tomatoes”. We’ve proven that greenhouses work: enable plants to grow faster; grow organically; conserves the environment; yield better products; and have a very encouraging return on investment for all parties involved.

In 2014, we are going to the market. We are going to make these HAPPY products available to all and make us all HAPPY again. We hope to change the nature of the markets and their content.
We are just getting started but already getting closer to our goals and vision. I hope to get your feedback when you taste of any of the “HAPPY FARMS” products.
Thank you to the entire team here in Mbengwi and around the world..