Idea 449 of 500. Cluster 23: The women who are not working
Tissue-culture laboratories growing banana, pineapple and foliage plantlets by the million, disease-free, for the farms of Asia, Africa and the Gulf
The mechanism, from the book
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home. Much of what keeps it there (childcare, safe transport, working hours) can be sold as a service, and the industries that would employ it can be built.
Every idea in cluster 23 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Visit a university plant-science department and ask whether a graduate could rent laboratory time to start. Choose one crop, such as banana, and learn the method for growing clean plantlets. Ask large farms and nurseries what they pay for disease-free plants and how many they need. The proof is one farm's order for a first batch.
- Who pays first
- A large farm or nursery replanting a field that wants plants it knows are disease-free, and pays more for them.
- What leaves today
- Science graduates leave or sit idle; a laboratory sells their skill by the million plants to farms here and abroad.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. OneThe Letter That Says Yes and Means No
32% of adult women in work, against 70% of men
More from cluster 23
- 436Childcare co-operatives run by mothers for mothers, licensed and inspected, in every town
- 437After-school clubs at the schools, paid by the parents, run by teachers who want the income
- 438Women-only transport services for the night shifts and the early trains
- 439Home-based work platforms that pay properly: sewing, bookkeeping, transcription, design
- 440Shared workspaces for women with childcare attached, in Colombo and the district towns
- 441Women's craft co-operatives with a single brand and a single buyer abroad
Idea 449 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.