AHON Farms Inc. is the subsidiary of Ahon World Inc. that will be established as the for-profit sister company of Rural Rising Philippines (RuRi).  It is intended to provide extremely poor farmers consistent income and also a chance at ownership of the company that helps them so they can have a source of retirement income.

Yes, it is  a social enterprise that is 100% owned by AHON World Inc., a Delaware, USA registered company.

Social Enterprises seek to maximize profits while maximizing benefits to society and the environment, and the profits are principally used to fund social programs. (Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-enterprise.asp). We at AHON Farms are also focusing on giving out dividends to farmer-owners of the company through Class A Common Shares of the parent company AHON World, Inc. that are exclusive to farmers.

We intend to invest in new technology to modernize the farming practices in the Philippines and work with various government, universities, and tech companies around the world to introduce and experiment with the best technology that can enhance the productivity of farmers white taking care of the environment. We are humble enough to recognize that the best technology does not always come from the USA and can often be found in developing countries or in other start-up entrepreneurial social enterprises. We are committed to researching and finding these ground-breaking technologies so the Philippines can be at the forefront of testing these new innovations. 

We also intend to use profits of the company to:

(1) reinvest in the company to enhance capabilities and discover new technologies

(2) pay out dividends to investors, and 

(3) invest in programs that improve the lives of farmers such as financial education programs, entrepreneurship, health services, tuition fee scholarships, and other programs that can help support a better mindset and living condition for poor farmers.

RuRi will continue to focus on Rescue Buys while AHON Farms focuses on contracted growing. We intend to qualify farmers for AHON Farms’ contracted growing through the current base of 4,500 farmers helped by RuRi. We are planning to start with 50 farmers already identified by Ace & Andie Estrada last November 2022.

No, we intend that a portion of these profits will be donated to RuRi for growing their Rescue Buys as it is in need of constant cash infusion for growth both from member donations and institutional donations. 

In addition, we intend to use a portion of the profits to invest in programs that improve the livelihood of farmers such as financial literacy classes, scholarships, mental health programs, subsidized housing, and other programs that are aligned to giving the farmers a better life.

We also need to pay dividends to shareholders and these will be considered as we calculate the cash needs of AHON Farms’ operations.  

How much of the profits will be donated and funneled into these activities will be a subject of a board resolution. It is our intent that at least 10% of the profits will be funneled into these programs. Ideally 50% so we can accelerate our impact in the lives of the farmers. 

Yes, we are willing to investigate franchising both the RuRi NGO and the for-profit sister company AHON Farms.

For RuRi, this is at the sole discretion of the RuRi officers which as of September 18, 2023, they have no desire to do a franchise at the present time. 

For AHON Farms, this will require BOD approval of the parent company AHON World Inc. and evaluated on a case-by-case basis. 

We need more help to scale up fast within the Philippines and finding at least one partner in Cebu and in Davao is ideal. The best situation is having a partner or franchisee in every major city in the Philippines.

We have over 3.2 million very poor farmers to help. So the more we can accelerate expansion through partnerships and franchising, the better. This number is calculated as of September 6, 2023 based on the following information:

• 10.66 million people employed in farming within the Philippines (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_the_Philippines)
• 30% poverty incidence rate among farmers (http://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/3/26/fisherfolk-farmers-poorest-2021.html)

We estimate 22% in Luzon, 37% in Visayas, and 41% in Mindanao. Among the 3.2 million very poor farmers, this translates to 700K in Luzon, 1.2 million in Visayas, and 1.3 million in Mindanao.

The Philippines is hit by 20 typhoons every year on average (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoons_in_the_Philippines#:~:text=The%20Philippines%20is%20a%20typhoon,area%20of%20responsibility%20each%20year.)

Having an indoor farm mitigates the risk of crops being destroyed. In addition, this enables year round growing as well as consistent crop taste and size due to a controlled environment.