A Bag of Fertilizer and the Making of a Successful Agrodealer
CNFA/RUMARK, Malawi
John Anthony ventured into agribusiness in the 1990’s with a single bag of fertilizer which didn’t even belong to him. Today he is a successful agrodealer and an active community member. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation in 2002, CNFA/RUMARK began an intensive effort to train rural retailers such as Mr. Anthony in business management, to create a network of rural agrodealers. This training, supplemented with a guarantee facility, provides agrodealers with the knowledge and skills to apply entrepreneurial abilities to establishing successful agribusinesses.
A friend of Mr. Anthony’s was traveling from Zomba to Blantyre and asked him to store a 50kg bag of fertilizer while he was gone. This coincidentally happened when most families were applying fertilizers to their gardens and fields. By this time in the season, the nearest Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), a major supplier of agricultural input supplies in Malawi, had run out of fertilizer. Upon seeing how desperate people were to procure fertilizer, Mr. Anthony decided to sell his friend’s fertilizer in small amounts (1, 5, and 10kg). “It was a serious business with a specific mission to accomplish,” he says. Many farmers eagerly purchased the fertilizer, and Mr. Anthony profited from the sales. Later he was able to buy more 50kg bags to parcel and sell, as well as return a 50kg bag to his friend.
John had traveled to South Africa when he was younger but returned home after his plans there did not work out. “I came back from South Africa in 1990 and went to work on my father’s farm,” he recalls. “After some years I decided I should be doing something on my own in order to raise money from my work. I opened a hawker (or chicken hatchery), which took me about six years to complete. This was because I did not have the capital. In 1990, I was busy farming maize and keeping chickens and had no ideas about starting an agribusiness.”
As John’s business grew he took opportunities in workshops and trainings on agriculture and business practices. He attended an entrepreneurial training session at the Malawi Entrepreneurship Development Institute (MEDI) in Dowa. Then in 2005, he received training in agribusiness, from CNFA/RUMARK.
“We learned about record keeping, planning and basic principles of business management in the CNFA/RUMARK training,” he said. “The training linked us to input supply companies and the Malawi Rural of Finance, where some people were able to get credit.”
The knowledge he gained from CNFA/RUMARK encouraged Mr. Anthony to aim higher in his business projects. “At this time I am making a lot of profits from chemicals such as Actellic. Last year I made sales of about K1.2 million (a little over $8,500) from chemicals alone, and I sold all of Actellic within 30 days of my purchase,” he says. Mr. Anthony used these profits to construct the building in which he currently operates his business, as well as a secondary school for the district.
As a result of CNFA/RUMARK’s efforts for building a network for agribusinees, Malawian agrodealers have supplied millions of dollars of agricultural inputs into rural areas since the program started. Mr. Anthony is an example of one of these agrodealers who has been very successful. He believes, however, that the 50kg bag of fertilizer changed his life, and with the help of CNFA/RUMARK’s training, he was able to fully develop his abilities and become a successful entrepreneur and community member.
Stories from Moldova
Company Becomes Industry-Wide Link to New Markets
Moldova’s Dried Fruits and Vegetable Sector Expands
with the Help of a New Equipment Supplier
Moldova was once the main supplier of dried fruits and vegetables to the Soviet Union. Following its collapse and resulting economic decline, Moldova’s dried fruit and vegetable sector suffered dramatically. In recent years, the sector has been able to recover somewhat with production levels rising to roughly half of levels prior to 1991. As a result, employment and incomes in the sector have increased providing much needed relief to Moldova’s strained rural economy.
The key to Moldova's continued growth and recovery of the dried fruit and vegetable sector is its ability to adapt to the increasingly global marketplace and the potential for export of its goods to high value Western markets. However, most of the equipment used by the sector is out-dated Soviet machinery that fails to meet Western standards, thus, barring many of the companies from exporting to these markets. For Uniferax-Grup, Ltd., a local drying processor, a solution was found by developing new equipment on par with Western standards. Despite its success, this one-company approach failed to address the sector-wide problems of out-dated technology, thus, continuing sector-wide inefficiencies.
USAID Agribusiness Development Project (ADP), implemented by CNFA®saw the opportunity for Uniferax-Grup, Ltd. to take a new direction. If the company marketed its equipment, it could provide the means for many of Moldova’s dried fruit and vegetable producers to enter Western markets. To help Uniferax-Grup achieve this goal, ADP created business linkages between its clients and the company. Study tours were then organized to provide Moldovan producers the chance to see the equipment first hand.
As a result, eight Moldovan companies began to use Uniferax-Grup equipment, including five of ADP’s partners. With the new equipment, six of these companies are now exporting their goods to Western markets. With small but influential investments, this USAID initiative opened new markets for local Moldovan producers. In turn, the rural economy, which is heavily reliant on the agricultural sector, has benefited. The success of other industries in the agriculture sector will soon follow, as Uniferax-Grup is now planning to develop equipment solutions for packinghouse operations – another high priority in maximizing the export potential of Moldova’s agriculture sector.
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Stories from Pakistan
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Since June 2006, the CNFA Improving Livelihoods and Enterprise Development (I-LED) project funded by USAID has been assisting communities affected by the October 8, 2005 earthquake to rebuild their livelihoods in the Siran and KaghanValleys, located in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Bagh District in Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK). Through a participatory community engagement process, I-LED worked with communities and government to identify and prioritize needs, and provided support for communities and households to restore livestock, reestablish crop systems, and revitalize micro-enterprise during the first year of the project. The process involved reconstruction of existing livelihoods, Value chain development, and local economic development. I-LED through the Kitchen Gardening Training Program established a solid base for economic development through trainings that restored livelihoods and expanded employment and enterprise opportunities.
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An I-LED trainer demonstrates seedling sowing techniques.
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In April 2007, about 1500 women in Manshera, and 675 in Bagh-Azad received training under the CNFA project in Improving Livelihood and Enterprise Development (I-LED) through the Kitchen Gardening Training Program. Kitchen Gardening, a program implemented by CNFA in Manshera in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Bagh-Azad in Kashmir, trains women affected by the October 8, 2005 earthquake by introducing them to the best agriculture practices and use of gardening tool kits, hybrid seeds and how to make limited space in their gardens productive. This training is meant to empower women and improve their livelihood potential. The women receiving training will participate in the pending months and year in developing kitchen gardening activities such as livestock management, backyard poultry and kitchen gardening. The training will equip women with marketable skills necessary to improve their livelihoods.
Mehr Nigar, one of the 1,500 female beneficiaries trained in April 2007 by the I-LED Program in Manshera NWFP Kitchen Gardening Training Program, was given a package of certified vegetable seed that she cultivated in her house as well as outside the house, with the help of her family. Her tomato crop is now ready to be harvested. The hybrid seed is paying off. Productivity of the crop is expected to be four times that of the normal seed varieties, generally used by the farmers of the area. “Nobody ever thought about us before, a life changing miracle happened and everyone witnessed it. Because these trainings now enable us to earn and save money for our living” Mehr Nigar stated.
Skilled trainers from Agriculture Department and HARS (Himalayan Agriculture Research Station) were hired to train women in Kitchen Gardening that would make them know how to make limited space in their gardens more productive. They got acquainted with best agriculture practices and applying quality inputs at the right time and quantity. For the first time they experienced using hybrid seed. Besides training in improved methods farmers got also kitchen gardening tool kits and hybrid seeds. Moreover, 675 women were also trained in Bagh-Azad Kashmir.
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