As I said in my last post on Celine and her project, Celine started her project without anything.  She had no land, didn’t even know where to put down the greenhouse she wanted to purchase, she had no training on how to grow or care for tomato plants, and she had no money to start.  

Therefore, obviously, her biggest challenges were money, space, and education. 

So how did she do all of this?  She was able to secure a small loan to purchase a greenhouse of 10X4, she bought 21 trays to grow seedlings, and she got three envelopes of seeds.  Then the money was over.  Since the trays cannot be on the ground and she was not able to get banks or tables, she used construction blocks as a base for the trays.

As she had run out of money with the initial investment, revenue was a priority.  After three weeks she sold all 21 trays of seedlings and took the money to buy more seeds and more trays, this process she repeated three times until she had 140 trays and was able to use some of the seedlings for herself.  

Celine had gotten land rented, one hectare, where she started to plant the seedlings, and now has it planted with 28,000 tomato plants.  Her first crop will be ready for harvest in August. 

From the beginning, Celine was educating herself on caring for the tomatoes and within a short time has become an expert.  

I asked her if there was another challenge she had faced, and she explained to me that time is very important.  “You have to be there, in the nursery, all the time,” she said.  “It’s like having small babies, if you are not there you will not notice if a plant is getting sick or if the water is not correct, etc.”  Therefore, being able to divide the time between the tomatoes and all the other things she has to do, was a big challenge.