May 3 2011 @ 17:28

Mother's Day at One Sister Agro Dealers Shop

Christine Daka stands proudly in her shop on a dusty road through Mwanjavantu, Zambia, which eventually leads to the border with Mozambique. She will open her small stall this Mother's Day as she has every day for the last five years, which she operates to support her two children through school. Inside it's filled with products you would expect from your local store, such as groceries, hygiene & beauty products, and other household goods. However on many days Christine also has bags of maize and vegetable seeds, fertilizers and various other agriculture supplies stacked up around her shop.

Christine struggled to increase profit margins when running the shop she had started with the help of CARE. When approached by CARE again to start adding the agricultural products to her shop, she saw an opportunity to reach out to a new market. CARE's program had sought to recruit and mentor small agricultural enterprises located in rural areas, to improve access to agricultural products. Prior, farmers would travel the 45 km to the nearest town, to buy a products like a small bottle of veterinary medicine. On trips such as this, transport costs would be double, or triple, what the product costs. Now, small agricultural shops are servicing farmers in their communities, delivering valuable technical advice on top of essential products.

The stacked seeds and fertilizer suddenly make much more sense when, in communities like Mwanjavantu, and across the country, over 80% of Zambians rely on their farms as their primary income. By offering various inputs for farmers at her shop, Christine is able to access not only Zambia's largest industry and customer base, but also bring the community access to supplies they would normally have to travel much further for in a larger city. The proximity to Mozambique has even brought many customers across the border to access services and products not available locally.

Joanne Linnay, a volunteer on EWB’s Access to Market team, has been working with CARE in Zambia, consulting them towards their objective of establishing 500 thriving rural enterprises much like Christine's, across three Zambian provinces. As part of her goal to better understand the agriculture market, Joanne attended a dozen CARE-organized seed fairs—events that aim to help rural farmers make more informed purchasing decisions and increase their knowledge of available products by bringing goods closer to home—and in the process made recommendations to CARE around improving their services to farmers.

In addition to working with CARE, Joanne also spent a significant amount of time living with Christine. During her time in Mwanjavantu she supported Christine's shop by mentoring her and showing her basic business principles to help her improve her business. In return Joanne gained valuable insights to better understand how the entire network of local agro shops could better serve their customers When analyzing monthly sales data together, they realized that 99% of Christine's profits and 79% of her customers were in the months of October to December, when she distributes maize seed.

Christine is now working to diversify her products to counter the seasonality of her business and provide better service to farmers. A more diverse product offering, better catering to her customers, and generating an income on a steady basis throughout the year will help Christine move from uncertainty to confidence in her ability to plan for the future of her family. With a more diverse offering of products, Christine is providing for her family, strengthening her business, paying for her children to attend school, increasing the size of her own farm, and even invest in an apartment complex to provide extra income from rent.

With a strengthened and successful network of rural farm suppliers, we're looking to better connect rural farmers to increased business opportunities and profits. By honouring a special woman in your life this Mother's Day with a donation to EWB, you'll enable us to support more entrepreneurs across Zambia like Christine.

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