In less than 10 years, Dinnah Kapiza managed to transform a used clothing business into a chain of agrodealer shops that form a critical linkage between Malawian smallholder farmers and output markets.
A mother of 10 whose husband died in 1999, Mrs. Kapiza enrolled with CNFA in July 2002 to receive training in business management through the Malawi Agrodealer Support Program. She opened her new store soon after with an initial investment of just $310.00. Through access to the CNFA credit guarantee, a benefit of completing her training, she was able to access secure trade credit and build a relationship with international seed and input suppliers to supply a full range of quality inputs to local farmers at affordable prices.
Today her agrodealer business, called Tisaiwale Trading, is made up of four shops that employ ten people and serve roughly 600 small-scale farmers within a nine-mile radius, selling seeds, farm tools, crop protection products and fertilizer, and dispensing crucial technical advice on these products. Tisaiwale Trading has also expanded beyond input supply to output marketing, purchasing local farmers’ produce. Her stores provide extension services through demonstration plots and field days with the help of CNFA, local affiliate RUMARK and input supply companies.
“I wanted to become an agrodealer after seeing that most peasant farmers were unable to access farm supplies” she says. “Also, I wanted to make a successful business. When CNFA came, I jumped at that chance. They provided a guaranteed supply of products. They provided training in business management and the types of seed and fertilizer to use. The farmers usually come on bicycles, sometimes they come on foot. Most people come from far distances, six miles away. Customers come for help whenever they have questions concerning a crop or crop failure, and I have to explain how it works. They come when the rains fail, or when some pests eat their crops.”
In 2002, Mrs. Kapiza’s sales totaled $10,000, already a vast improvement over her clothing business. By 2007, her sales had multiplied over six times. Last year, they totaled $190,000.
Mrs. Kapiza also passes the fruits of her success on to her community, working for a local nonprofit that assists orphans and vulnerable children, often providing employment in her stores. She says “All that I have done is through God’s mercy, and also because I try to manage my time properly: family, work, helping others, managing business, tending my own garden—all of it.”
