Agrodealer provides a ‘last mile’ inputs distribution channel
By Gift Chanda, Communications Officer and Charles Musonda,
Operations Manager – Output & Environment Markets.
 |
| Photo: Rodgers Chongo attends to farmers in his agroshop/ Gift Chanda |
Rodgers Chongo runs a small business in Mwantalasha village located approximately 23km from Chongwe town called Cho Agrodealers since 2015.
His business plays a critical role in the agricultural supply chain as a ‘last mile’ distributor of products and service provider within the community.
Through his outlet, Chongo sells hybrid seed, fertiliser and agrochemicals as an agent for agricultural inputs distributed by Pioneer DuPont and SeedCo, Omnia Fertilisers, and ATS Agrochemicals among others.
He was recently trained by ATS as a Spray Service Provider (SSP) in the community and is a promoter of ‘safe use’ messages.
In February 2017, VITALITE, with the support of Musika, tested a digital agriculture information dissemination model for smallholder farmers to help bridge the information gap using a solar-powered digital television (TV) set.
Chongo was among those selected to participate in the pilot. The concept of the digital TV as a channel of disseminating agriculture information emanated from the scarcity of effective and appropriate technical information that farmers can utilise to improve their farming enterprises.
 |
| Photo: A farmer after buying inputs from Cho Agroshop in Chongwe/ Gift Chanda |
For the past two seasons, Chongo has managed to grow his business and has expanded his operations to Rufunsa District and currently employs four people. During the same period, he qualified to participate in the FISP E-Voucher initiative as an approved agrodealer and constructed a shed for storing inputs and aggregating crop during the 2017/2018 farming season.
Musika believes that the small rural business can play a critical role in the agricultural supply chain, either as a first-level aggregator of commodity, a ‘last mile’ distributor of products and/or a service provider within rural communities.
During the last quarter of 2017, a total of 158 additional points of market access to both improved crop and livestock output markets, using rural aggregators, were established in the smallholder market, bringing the total to 624 that have been established since 2012.
This opened up opportunities for over 15,500 smallholder farmers that sold various commodities into improved output markets during the last quarter of 2017.