FarmPlus has left the SINA Mpigi compound. Its new production site is about two kilometres away. Close enough to remain connected, but it is now their own space. For us, that is graduation. Jesca and Vicky started FarmPlus inside SINA at the Jangu International community. They use black soldier fly larvae to turn organic waste into protein feed for animals. The first production system was built inside the community while the team tested whether the idea could become a real enterprise.
Then the storm came. Heavy winds destroyed the production site. The larvae were lost and production stopped. Everything the team had produced was gone. FarmPlus still had customers to serve and bills to meet. Jesca and Vicky had to rebuild the space and soon after they found investment. A stronger production site became possible.
FarmPlus now has better conditions for the larvae and more room to produce. But the move also means carrying the full pressure of an independent enterprise. FarmPlus has to earn enough to keep it running. This is the moment Anzisha speaks about in the video below. What it means when a social enterprise created through the SINA Framework is ready to leave the community and stand on its own.
Graduation at SINA does not come with a certificate. It comes when a social enterprise is financially self-sustainable, the founders have created their own work and the space they used inside SINA can be handed to someone else who is still trying to begin. FarmPlus has reached that point. The connection to SINA remains. The dependence does not.
