Three students wanted to solve the problem of hunger in Africa. So they created Ag 4 Africa, an organization aimed at helping to develop rural parts of the sub-Saharan, specifically Ghana.

The business, created by Holly Tassi, Ryan Seeram and Tamara Cohen, has now been chosen as one of three finalists in the Dell Social Innovation Competition and will compete in this weekend’s Panasci Business Plan Competition.

Ag 4 Africa, which began as a project in an SU entrepreneurship class, plans to work on farms to plant more bambara, a critical crop, in order to alleviate hunger and poverty in Ghana.

The competition, to be held May 5 in Austin, Texas, includes a 15-minute presentation and 15-minute Q-and-A session by all three finalists, followed by an awards ceremony. The other two finalists are from Wesleyan University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Tassi and Seeram, both seniors in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, and Cohen, a 2009 alumna, developed the idea last semester during EEE 457: “Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management,” which required students to create a unique business idea and launch it. They came up with the idea after searching “hunger in Africa” in Google, Seeram said.

“In order to solve our problem, we asked where the biggest problem is, and we said Africa,” Seeram said.

The students found a book, “The Last Crops of Africa,” which detailed grains, fruits and vegetables in the continent, Seeram said. From the book, the group chose bambara, a groundnut similar to the peanut, as they thought it would be the most beneficial crop, he said.

The group chose to focus on Ghana based on its central location near the ocean on the southern boarder of Africa, Tassi said. Additionally, bambara is already growing there, she said. They also wanted to choose somewhere less risky to start operations and a place where there is a need to improve the quality of life and poverty situation, Seeram said.

The students are currently working on making connections to start their business and build experience. The group has already spoken to Ghana Nestle about making bambara into milk, and they said it was still in the research process, Seeram said. They also spoke to the senior sourcing manager of Starbucks about how much soy Starbucks uses and how they would go about testing if they had a substitute for soy.

Tassi will travel to Rwanda this summer, where she will work for the Ministry of Agriculture helping farmers to generate income and have access to markets.

“We want to spread it as much as we can, and the scalability of this project is what makes it interesting,” Tassi said.

Tassi said if the business becomes a reality, the money will go toward research in obtaining seeds and building relationships with people at Nestle and Starbucks.
Seeram said: “The excitement of the people in Ghana for the business plan shows us we can actually advance this and make it happen.”

Published on April 20, 2010 at 12:00 pm