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Farming as a business: Widows’ Group breaks through to sell to WFP
Farming as a business: Widows’ Group breaks through to sell to WFP
In early 2007, a group of 24 women came together to save their meager earnings through a ‘merry-go-round’ scheme. Koptegei Widows Group remained dormant as the women, who earned little from working as farm laborers lacked meaningful resources to save.
“Although we live in a district which has a potential to produce 30,000 Metric Tons of maize, lack of capital and skill is holding us back from starting any income generating farming activities on our farms”, confessed Christine Chebii Ngogi, the leader at the beginning of 2009.
The break for the Koptigei Widows Group came when AGRA’s partnership with Cereal Growers Association (CGA), World Food Program’s Purchase for Progress (P4P) and Equity Bank landed in South Rift valley, Transmara West District in Kenya.
How it worked
AGRA mandated CGA to work with World Food Program’s (WFP) P4P to ensure that smallholder farmers receive the requisite training to participate in WFP tendering process and to produce quality that would sell to other top of the supply chain buyers like large millers.
The Koptigei Widows Group was one of the first beneficiaries of the three year USD 999,642 grant to CGA. The organization trained them in post harvest handling (aspects of quality, grading, weighing, bulking and storage), book keeping, collective marketing and tendering processes of WFP.
The women were also trained on access and use of market information and e-services such as Regional Trade Intelligence Network (RATIN) to know “who wants, what, where”. This helped them price their maize.
Kilimo Biashara’s Equity Bank
CGA also linked the group to Equity Bank under Kilimo Biashara, another AGRA grantee, to help them access credit and also facilitate their trading activities. With the training and financial backing, the group participated in a competitive WFP P4P tender targeted at smallholder farmers who can match the stringent high quality standards of WFP and deliver as per contract terms. Koptigei Windows Group won a tender to deliver 250MT worth 6 million Kenya shillings.
The joy and pride of farming as a business is now magnified across the Southern Rift Valley of Kenya by groups like Koptigei Widows Group who are transforming their lives by becoming active market participants.
*Merry- go- round –Groups of rural women across Africa use this informal mode of banking where members contribute an agreed fund regularly and lend to each other from the fund.