We Are Tomodachi Autumn 2017

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9manufacturers and to build a soybean supply chain. Alphajiri Ltd. makes contracts with farmers and comprehensively manages their business transactions. This includes purchasing soybeans produced by the farmers at fair prices, selling them to the processing manufacturers, and everything in between. In addition, to increase harvest output and improve the supply volume of individual farmers, the company loans seeds, fertilizer, etc. and provides technical guidance. To ensure that the farmers receive instructions and advice in a timely manner, the company appoints a field officer in each village. After acquiring cultivation know-how from Alphajiri employees, the field officer makes rounds of a village on bicycle and provides immediate help where it's needed. For example, if the officer finds harvested soybeans exposed to rain, the officer will instruct the farmer on covering the harvest with tarpaulin sheets. It's a detail-oriented system that truly employs the Japanese philosophy of "Kaizen," the pursuit of continuous improvement.The contracted farmers enjoyed the clear instructions and reliable cash income, while the processing manufacturers widely accepted the stable high quality of the soybeans. At the company's outset, contracts with farmers numbered around 50. Today, there are approximately 2,000 farmers annually contracted to the company. The growth of the business has allowed for more efficiency on a large scale, and now the soybeans can be collected at one location and transported in large volumes at once. With this and other improvements, the business has truly taken off.Yakushigawa enthusiastically explains, “Our objective is to achieve a yearly total of 10,000 contracted farmers by 2020. In the future, Alphajiri Ltd. will also handle products other than soybeans as we expand our business throughout Kenya and to other countries in East Africa, helping farmers in more places earn a stable and continuous income.”TransportProcessingSorting/ classicationCropassemblyHarvestingFarm managementSeedingProcessServicesbyAlphajiriLtd.Providing agricultural materialsFarmer training for higher productivityInventory controlQuality controlStable supplyCollective mass distributionSupplyinghigh quality cropsPurchasingat market priceDirect transportation to factoryAt a meeting held in June 2017, field officer contracts were signed with 23 individuals chosen by each village in Migori County.The employees of Alphajiri Ltd. directly educate the field officers who assist the local farmers.Alphajiri Ltd. derives its name from the Swahili word “Alfajiri,” which means “sunrise.” Yakushigawa explains, “We chose the name to evoke the image of the Kenyan people plowing the fields in the early morning. At the start of a day, the name also reminds me of the reason I came to Africa and ensures that I never forget my original purpose.”Services offered by Alphajiri Ltd.