Our Investments

We’ve set out to make investments in agriculture and in renewable energy, water and forestry

Our initial investment is an agricultural development in Mozambique, Wanza Farms S.A. The farm currently produces 2,500Ha of soybean and maize and is uniquely positioned to benefit from access to market and delivery of economic impact to local communities

Strategic Location

The farm is located on the tri-province boundary with Zambezia province, with favourable agro-climatic conditions and within a road, rail and port infrastructure corridor, that positions the assets strategically vis-à-vis local, regional and overseas markets

Experienced Team

Top management consists mainly of professional farmers who, for the most part have, worked together since the project’s inception in 2011

De-risked Entry

Agricultural yields have continuously increased over the lifetime of the project through investment in modern machinery, improvements in soils and refinement in agricultural technique, significantly de-risking agronomic risk

ThirdWay Africa Asset Management

ThirdWay Africa manages the ThirdWay RDC portfolio employing a deal-by-deal approach, promoting ventures with a clear commercial return and tangible social and environmental impact. ThirdWay Africa is a member of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA).

ThirdWay Africa

Significant value levers exist to develop the assets into a competitive agricultural platform from which to consolidate development in the local area

Agri Stabilization

In the long term, we will move towards control traffic farming:

• Minimising soil compaction
• Maximising root depth
• Maximising organic matter in the soil
• Minimising till farming
• Increasing moisture retention in the soil by as much as 25%; reducing significantly the amount of water needed for irrigation
• Reducing fertilisers and herbicides
• Increasing carbon capture

Planted Area

Wanza’s total concession area of 10,000ha represents a significant opportunity for further expansion. The potential to help local farmers surrounding the farm improve both their yields and farming practices is huge. Ultimately, this represents the potential to create a smallholder financial business to further increase production

Irrigation

The Nalume River runs across the farm and represents potential to expand irrigation to somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000ha of both supplemental and winter irrigation. The farm will then be a beneficiary of double crop rotations, any winter price premiums, and yield improvements. Winter crops will also help diversify the crops grown on the farm and will probably include wheat and barley. Wanza has recently built a small dam that will serve as a trial platform from which to build a scale irrigation system

Storage

Wanza’s civil works allow for up to ten 1,200 ton silos (with only 3 built), representing significant storage expansion potential to allow the sale of summer harvests in winter and benefit Wanza with winter price premiums

Diversification

Suitability to grow exportable tree crops (e.g., macadamia, groundnut, cashew, pecan) for export, in addition to the existing grain crops, represents potential to diversify agricultural and currency risk

Community

Given favourable agro-climatic conditions coupled with low population density, the tri-povince region of Zambezia, Nampula and Niassa is host to other soybean and maize farms, thus offering opportunities to improve quality of inputs as well as logistical terms

Creating initial conditions for exponential growth for smallholders in rural Africa

The life cycle of our operations will include the development of infrastructure, productivity and economic opportunity combine to deliver the impact we seek to create

Investment Selection

Wanza Farms, our first investment, reflects our ideal target:

A large nucleus farm with significant potential for smallholders

Risk Amelioration

We plan to develop irrigation to allow yield and cropping improvement, with export crops added to diversify production and currency exposure

Platform Development

Our ambition is to increase the scale of the farm and consolidate with other agricultural investments to create a large & diversified agricultural platform

Blended Finance

We aim to attract institutions to provide grant financing for infrastructure expansion, allowing for improved cropping and local community access to irrigation. Grants will be sought to improve local facilities, impacting healthcare, education and skills development

Catalytic Impact

We want to include smallholder farmers in the value chain and help communities with access to electricity & clean water for the first time

As our investments develop, we will measure the tangible impact and benefits they deliver

Our operations will include a baseline social study, from which we will develop the delivery of measurable value improvements to society, illustrated through an annual Sustainability Report publication

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