Sustainable Farming in Bonaire

Executive summary

The agroforestry systems are seen as potential systems that could reduce climate change while producing food for the world population. The syntropic farming system is one of the subcategories of the agroforestry systems. However, is a syntropic farming system economically viable? This question was raised by the organization Mangazina di Rei. They are interested in creating a commercial syntropic farming system on Bonaire. The starting point for this research is based on the initial idea of the Mangazina di Rei to start producing fruits and vegetables for home cooks and restaurants.

The main research question in this study was: What business model design would be economically viable for a syntropic farming system on Bonaire? The different elements of the business model: value proposition, value creation, and value capture were configured into the three sub-research questions in this study.  This objective was to create an economically viable business. To gather information for the business model design explorative research was conducted.  The research practices existed out of interviews with different stakeholders and experts and analysis of documents. One group of the stakeholders interviewed were the potential customers, these interviews gave insight into the value proposition element of the business model. Simultaneously, expert interviews concentrated on answering the other two business model elements about a syntropic farm's value creation and value capture.

The findings for the value proposition gave insight into what is valued by the potential customers. The potential customer groups interviewed were home cooks and restaurants. The home cooks value in general the social and especially environmental aspects of fruits and vegetables when buying them. So a farm that would contribute to the ecosystems and simultaneously contribute by providing education activities for school would be beneficial. The restaurants were divided into three groups; High segment, middle segment, and low segment. Because the value seen by the restaurants was different per segment, the low and middle segments preferred the most affordable product on the market, but it is essential to maintain the desired quality without compromise. Restaurants in the higher segment place more emphasis on quality, making the price less concern; however, consistent availability is important for all of the restaurants. The stakeholders interviewed, who aren't customers, place value on a balanced combination of social, environmental, and economic considerations in a farm producing fruits and vegetables. 

The value creation for each value proposition is more or less the same. It is important to start with an infrastructural farm design because the syntropic farming system is not a system that you can alter every year. Based on this infrastructural design the right investment for land preparation, seeds, trees, machinery, buildings, and personnel are crucial for effective production of produce. To coordinate the farm's production, an experienced manager would be important. This is especially important when serving customer segments that ask for consistent delivery of products. By selling the products to the customers the farm can generate revenue streams. However, before the farm can reach its full yield potential, it can take four to ten years depending on the system design. Therefore potential additional f inancial resources need to be acquired from subsidies or loans to sustain the business for the first phase. To keep track of the finances, an income statement calculation model has been designed based on the findings to give the organization a tool to budget or keep track of their finances during the first phase. 

Overall, this research contributed to the knowledge gap on the economic viability of a business model of a syntropic farming system. The business model designs and the income statement created in this explorative study provide tools that could guide Mangazina di Rei in the development process of a syntropic farming system on Bonaire.