Kickstarter campaign wants to empower Nigerian farmers with tomato paste

This has to be one of the most interesting crowdfunding projects we’ve seen in Africa. Launched by social entrepreneurs Mira Mehta and Shane Kiernan, Tomato Jos (that’s not a typo) wants to raise US$50 000 within the next month in a grand effort to help Nigerian farmers make awesome tomato paste.

“Our mission is to make tomato production a sustainable, profitable business for the farmers with whom we work,” Tomato Jos says.

Co-founder Mehta notes that even though tomatoes play a huge role in the average Nigerian diet, almost US$500-million is spent on importing tomatoes from abroad.

In order to empower people locally, Tomato Jos wants to provide farmers with better seeds, fertilizer, practices and a guaranteed market. It takes a lot of tomatoes to make tomato paste, but it takes more money to get the equipment to make that happen. So far, in an effort to raise capital for their own model farm, the team has raised over 50% of the campaign’s funding goal.

Take a look at their pitch on Kickstarter: