Peter Schuurs

tamu tamu tanzania (ttt) is the first commercial apple farm and apple tree nursery in East Africa. Our core business is producing and selling well-adapted, disease-resistant young apple trees which can thrive in cool, tropical conditions. We also produce and off-take fresh apples, processing these into a rangfe of value-added products for the local market. The ttt vision is to create a prosperous apple industry in East Africa, and to generate life-changing income improvement for thousands of farming families. Our mission is to revolutionise tropical apple growing in Africa, provide every farmer in the cooler tropics with the opportunity to develop an apple production based revenue stream that permanently enhances their livelihood.

Retained by a number of private-sector clients and development fund agencies to provide a diverse range of specialist inputs to various agricultural ventures and developments: • resident on-site turnaround management of large-scale, bi-modal rainfed cropping enterprise in northern Uganda to first-time profitability in 5 years of operations • ongoing supervision of business turnaround and further development of integrated cropping, grain processing and intensive piggery agribusiness in South Sudan • Team-Leader for comprehensive due-diligence and Business Plan development for turnaround of large-scale irrigated cropping and grain processing agribusiness in Tanzania • detailed technical, financial and marketing inputs to Business Plans of several private-sector greenfields agro-industrial projects in Uganda and Ethiopia • Conservation Farming specialist with short-term inputs in northern Ghana and Kenya to AfDB/IFAD-funded project • cereal agronomy and farming systems inputs to Business Plan of private-sector project for commercial-scale and smallholder farmer production of malting barley in medium to high altitude areas of Uganda and Kenya

• "Greenfields” private-sector venture from identification of the 50,000 hectares site, through detailed planning, writing of the Business Plan, & then to implementation, with $25M deployed on development and operations up to time of suspension of operations due to civil war in South Sudan • Consulting team recruited to assist with fieldwork & completion of initial Business Plan • Recruitment, mentoring & training of all key management staff & machinery operators • Identification of equipment, supervision of purchases & commissioning at the project site of same • Liaison with relevant state & national Government ministers & departmental employees • Development of the detailed framework for implementation of controlled traffic farming (CTF), in combination with no-till (NT) for an integrated CTF-NT field management system for rainfed & irrigated crops • The entire site was characterised by very flat, heavy, black cotton soils, & for successful crop production it was necessary to “engineer” grade using laser or RTK-GPS design & machine control systems so that crops did not become water-logged during the rainy season – design work completed & well progressed with implementation phase including development of large-scale irrigation cropping enterprises (in dry season) to utilise “harvested” run-off & overland flow water from the rainy season • Crops under production included maize, grain sorghum, sunflowers, soybeans & chickpeas, with developed cropping area up to 2,000 ha • On-farm processing implemented through milling of maize & sorghum, pressing of sunflowers & soybeans for oil, & production of chana dal from chickpeas

• Oversee the rehabilitation of a failed irrigation project comprising 7,500 hectares of land adjacent to the Blue Nile River 80 kms upstream from Khartoum, from Business Plan through to implementation and management, with installation of 75 centre-pivot and three lateral-move irrigation systems, and operation of a fleet of sophisticated farming equipment • Operational management of project output comprising alfalfa (lucerne) green-chop and hay, plus maize silage and grain sorghum to the nearby large-scale, intensive dairy (milking in excess of 1000 cows year-round); alfalfa hay for export to Gulf region; and wheat supplied to commercial milling venture in Khartoum • Engaged local and international professionals to assist with complete physical assessment of the project site – soil survey, GPS-based topographic survey, proposed project layout, existing river pumps, design of project infrastructure, bills of quantity, climatic data analysis • Detailed review of previous agricultural development projects (both irrigation and rainfed) throughout Sudan to identify and quantify reasons for underperformance or failure • Identify and evaluate the potential of both local and regional export markets for a range of grain, forage/fodder, seeds, tree and vegetable crops that were suitable for the site, as well as the potential for large-scale modern dairy development based on forages and grain to be produced by the project • Detailed project financial analysis taking account of capital development costs, revenue projections and annual operating costs

Responsibilities • Business turnaround of a zero-tillage, rainfed farming project comprising several hundred participating small-scale farmers + 10,000 acres commercial-scale crop production farm • Assess underlying reasons for poor project performance in the period from implementation (mid-1998) up to mid-2002 • Diagnose technical constraints to achieving good crop productivity • Identify and train a select number of local youth to be participants in the Young Farmer Scheme, combining on-farm practical experience with full-time diploma training in Australia • During the period 2004-06 elected Chairman of the Botswana Commercial Farmers Association - extensive liaison with all echelons of academia and Government, from local advisers through to Ministerial and Presidential level, on technical as well as socio-economic, institutional and policy issues affecting the sector • Report to Masedi Board of Directors on monthly basis with technical & financial management reports; attend bi-monthly board meetings Project Achievements • Through linkages with laboratories, scientists & technical facilities in South Africa, USA and Australia, in combination with a series of field research & out-of-season on-farm trials, identified that the technical constraints to improved crop productivity were primarily related to problems of soil fertility imbalances & lack of suitable crop rotations, which in turn resulted in poor biological diversity in the existing farming system • Developed an integrated, wholistic farming system that successfully overcame these constraints & was profitable for both smallholder & commercial farmers in a marginal rainfed environment • Successfully introduced to the region commercial production of grain legume crops chickpeas and mungbeans, both crops in strong demand in the region • Development of new marketing channels for various seed crops & grain legumes, as well as sales direct to end-users of grain sorghum for human consumption

• RFC operated a total area under crop production = 4,000 acres, including 500 acres of intensive irrigation. • RFC was fully committed to an integrated system of no-tillage, controlled traffic farming in the production of the broad range of annual crops – sunflowers, cotton, grain sorghum, maize, hard & soft wheats, malting & feed barleys, chickpeas, soybeans and mungbeans • RFC undertook the initial trials & was then instrumental in introducing new maize varieties for contract production for breakfast cereal • Soft wheat had never previously been grown in the region - RFC successfully trialled and then introduced commercial production of this crop as part of a strategic alliance with several local millers exporting cake-making flour to South-East Asian markets • RFC was a regional co-operator with the Conservation Farming Information Centre & Australian Cotton R&D Corporation – this involved extensive liaison with a broad cross-section of agricultural specialists from universities, agriculture departments and private companies in the fields of agronomy, plant breeding, crop processing, insect and pest control, soil fertility management and adoption of no-tillage in combination with controlled-traffic farming • Took pro-active role in the development of a range of short courses and industry training guides for farmers and advisers, in the fields of Cotton Integrated Pest Management, Grain Legume Production and Opportunity Cropping

• Motivated by lack of government or commercial interests in providing suitable advisory services to the relatively isolated region, SRC worked with a group of 21 local farmers to form the Balonne Management Group (BMG), to which SRC provided a comprehensive range of advisory services • BMG farmers owned large-scale farms ranging in area from 5000 – 50,000 acres, & operated a diverse range of enterprises including one or more of: irrigated & rainfed cropping; beef cattle breeding & fattening; commercial & stud sheep production; wool-growing • SRC serviced both individual farmers & the Group as a whole, concentrating on agronomy, as well as other technical, financial & marketing advice • designed & managed a wide range of trials covering issues related to soil fertility; alternative crops & pastures, including new varieties; and wool & sheep meat production trials • organised discussion groups, field-days, workshops & farm-walks • provided on-farm technical & financial assessments • assistance to BMG members in the development & implementation of strategic business plans • In a region considered “marginal” for rainfed crop production due to highly variable rainfall quantity and pattern, on-farm technical advice focussed on: all aspects of agronomy of existing and new crops & pastures; integration of annual medics, lucerne (alfalfa) & grain legumes with cereal crops (hard wheat, malting and feed barleys) for more sustainable crop rotations; improved fallow management strategies; introduction of no-till practices; machinery selection & modification to support no-tillage • Ultimately, the extent of the crop & livestock productivity improvements achieved by BMG members during the period 1989-94 was a major catalyst for the establishment in 1995 of the Western Farming Systems Project, a 10-year combined initiative of Queensland & NSW Agriculture Depts, with the technical support of several regional universities

GRM is an international resource management company with more than 50 years’ experience in 130+ countries in rural development project planning, design, implementation and management. • Assigned to various local and overseas assignments including Pakistan (6 months), Mexico (2 months), Sultanate of Oman (3 x 2 months), Northern Territory (1 + 2 months), South Australia (3 months), North Queensland (1 month), regional Queensland (12 months) • Worked closely with 3 separate groups (with 6-18 participants), each for a period of 3 months, brought to Australia from Indonesia for training in a broad subject range of topics related to tropical forages, livestock & dairy production - liaised extensively with Agriculture Departments, CSIRO, Universities and farmers throughout Queensland to develop the training courses, write the training manuals and accompany each group on their respective training courses.

Majored in Farm Management and Agronomy (Soil Science) Graduated with 1st Class Honours