Two Stops Past Siberia

Fruit Trees for the Kyrgyz

The Fruit Tree Project

Orto Nura Village

2010

Preparation

In 2010, the first year this project was accomplished, we completed most elements of the entire project within a single week.

It began while I was at the UNDP office in Naryn city. My counterpart there was telling me about fruit tree saplings, shipped in from a nursery in the Jeti Oguz region of Lake Issyk Kul Oblast for a mere 150 som. I was surprised by the low costs. She told me more orders could be placed, but needed to come in within two days. She also put me in touch with my former director, Bakyt, who had been running operation’s with this company for the last 5 years.

I texted every village volunteer in the oblast, telling them they had 2 days to place orders for 150 som trees. The next day, I spoke with Bakyt. He told me that while the price was right, the ordering information was a little different. There was a minimum order of 500 saplings. Furthermore, I had until May 5^th, ten days, to order the plants. After that, the host-father of the volunteer, Rachel, from Orto Nura village called me to ask if he could get trees in his village. It was the only serious response I received from the villages.

At that point, I set up a ChipIn.com donation account, and put a link to it on my website. The next day, I sent out an email, asking the followers of my blog and travel list to help pay for the program.

The actual dollar cost of 500 trees was $1,666.66. I asked for $1,750. This buffer was to cover banking and currency exchange rate changes. Furthermore, I asked the villagers to pay %10, or 15 som per tree. This was to ensure that, while the cost was still very low, villagers would have some personal investment in the program. This is important.

For example, if we just stood on the side of the road and gave the trees away, a person might just take ten. Then, if they got home and decided they didn’t want to plant them, or water them, there’d be no loss. Asking for even a small fee ensures a certain element of commitment.

Project Development

After the first day of fund raising, we raised more than 800 dollars. With this confidence, I called Bakyt, and told him to place the order. After conferring with Kiyal, my UNDP counterpart, I determined we would order 400 apple trees, and 100 apricot trees. This reflected our perceived growing conditions of the region. At that point Bakyt asked me about the money. I had not planned to deal with the money for some weeks, so this came as a surprise to me.

At this point, I told Bakyt that it would be there, but that it had to be sent from America. In order to ensure this, I moved $1,700 from my private American savings account into my private American checking account. I moved $1,700 instead of $1,750 because I knew the ChipIn.com service, in association with PayPal.com was going to take 2.9%, or $50.75. After this, I went to my bank to make sure I could accept an international wire transfer. They told me that with my current account I wouldn’t be able to, but allowed me to open a new account, denominated in American dollars, allowed to receive international wire transfers. They also gave me the proper documentation require, including SWIFT numbers and the name of their American partner bank, allowing me to send the money.

Then I called Rachel in Orto Nura. She said that the villagers were skeptical about whether the trees would grow there. I had assurances from the trees growers, so the next day I went to Orto Nura to tell the people about the project. They had questions, but when I assured them that we were coming with experts, and that the trees would be so cheap, they agreed, and many even placed orders. Where I had intended to go canvassing, I found Rachel at a school party, and was able to talk directly with the teachers afterwards.

While talking with teachers and taking orders, it became clear that people were ordering equal numbers of apples and apricots, if not slightly more apricots. At this point, I called Bakyt and updated the order, asking for equal numbers of each tree. He was able to change the order.

Rachel also showed me a list of orders she had taken previously. It must be noted here that the project would have faced serious challenges if it had been attempted in a non-Peace Corps village. It would have required significantly more previous organization. Furthermore, using the school as a organization and distribution point proved very convenient. Doing so using only the village government office, other community organization, or even the school without proper introduction would have made things much harder.

Project Implementation

On May 3^rd, the trees arrived in Naryn city. The fund raising was at approximately 75%. I was initially struck by the sincerity of the men we were working with. Bakyt introduce me to them, and they stayed quiet. We spoke a little bit about their organization, Altyn Alma (The Golden Apple) on the way, but as we approached the village, the got more vocal. They talked openly about the places where trees would go well, and pointed out the fruit trees they saw in people’s home gardens.

When we arrived in the town, we opened up the van full of saplings behind the school. Rachel met us with her list of orders. I went out and about into the village, alerting the small shops where we had placed advertisements during my canvassing visit, groups of men on the street, and children walking home from school.

As we had previously not known when the trees would arrive, we had been unable to organize a single distribution event. While I walked around the village, I told people to meet at 1 o’clock. While this time was rather arbitrary, it did serve to give us our single largest selling period. At that time, with all parties serviced, the tree keepers grouped them and taught them about tree keeping.

They told them what direction to face them after planting, how deep, to soak the roots in water before planting, and to place bits of metal near the roots of the apple trees. Even once this group had dispersed, the men did this with most of the buyers. I was concerned that some of the buyers were children.

Children as buyers were, I believed, representative of another phenomenon. Parents, it seemed, didn’t have the time to come to the school and buy the trees. In the discussion of economics of Naryn trees, I talk about the amount of both time and money required to buy trees in the standard ways. These children showed that families both were very limited in time and money.

Another element of payment was credit. Much of the cash in these village economies comes from municipal salaries, including teacher salaries. Many of the teachers we talked to said they had yet to be paid for April. Rachel assured me that she had extended things to people on credit before, and that between her and her host family, they had tracked down all of the money. This project, being essentially paid for entirely form America, allowed us to extend trees, on credit, with very little risk.

Project Evaluation and Follow-Up

After the successful sale of all of the trees, approximately 3 hours after our arrival, I set out to see how people were following instructions. I was pleasantly surprised. Every tree I saw was facing east, and most people had put them in places inaccessible to livestock, either in existing gardens, or were building fences to protect them. I also saw people digging large stones from previously untended south-facing yards.

I told people about the project, how we had paid for it, and about the need for a Tree Growers Association in the town. People understood that winter care and future planning were necessary. Developing an association with strong membership will be the next step towards true sustainability for the project.

The total amount raised came out to just over $1,900, or nearly %110 of our goal, and after PayPal.com took it’s percent, this number came to just less than $1,844. Donors were primarily my personal friends and family, but also included Rachel’s friends and family, as well as the parents of other volunteers, unrelated to the project, who had independently learned of it through my website. The outpouring of support was phenomenal. I received many comments simply saying, “thank you for giving me an opportunity to help.”

I had moved money from my personal account previous to the complete collection of funds, and I had made the order previous to complete collection of funds. Furthermore, the international wire transfer cost a flat $35. This means that the remaining $144 not owed to me needed to stay in the project. As I had initially stated in the request that if sufficient monies were not raised for the project this year, that I would save it for next year, I consider it in keeping with the goals of the project to open up a new fund for next year’s project, using this $144 as the initial donation.

There is also the issue of the approximately $175 raised from the villagers by the sale of the trees. This money was originally meant to cover transfer fees, as well as provide a buffer if all the money wasn’t raised. As this wasn’t a problem, we now have this as a pool to draw from for subsequent trainings on tree keeping. I also consider this in keeping with project goals, as the project was originally designed to give trees and train people. Because of this excess cash, while we cannot provide more trees, we can provide more trainings.

Due to the accelerated duration of the project, I used the money I had personally fronted, and had it wired to my Kyrgyz bank account. I was only able to do this because my personal account in America was a joint account with my father. My bank had said the first of these types of transfers needed to be done in person. This came in convenient as PayPal.com got worried when I accessed my account from Kyrgyzstan. They put a hold on my account, and prevented me from transferring the money I had raised.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this, and I hope my explanations have both provided the transparency desired by donors, but also the detail required for the replication of the project by other parties.

We plan to replicate this project ourselves in 2011. For next year, we will begin planning the project earlier, and plan to procure the trees earlier in the growing season, as this had been a concerned raised by villagers. We will also put more effort into setting the foundation for a Tree Growers Association before we actually deliver the trees.

Fruit Tree Project Proposal