Page 80 - AFAP Success Stories 2020

The voice of the community on COVID-19:

Impact on rural livelihood; the case of Mawindo

Peter Mawindo is a sole proprietor based in Dedza, Malawi.
The company is well placed to offer agricultural inputs
including fertilizer, seeds and agrochemicals. Mawindo has
been in this agro-based business for over 17 years. Currently
Mawindo is an official distributor of SEEDCO and Yara
products, among others. This has been possible because
of the trust he has gained with customers and other
stakeholders. Mr Mawindo’s main strength has been that he
has both seasonal and permanent shops all over Dedza. The
shops are open from 5 a.m. until 6 p.m., which increases his
availability and accessibility. He is a diversified businessman
who deals with both inputs and output. He has also recently
embarked on an added-value enterprise with sunflowers,
from which he produces cooking oil. Mr Mawindo has been
subcontracting farmers as well as farmer cooperatives to
grow sunflowers for the company.

With AFAP intervention, Peter Mawindo has been able to Malawi are generally low (February to May) because it is
recruit one extension agent; he has seven shop assistants during this time that most of the crops are in the field and
and four watchmen; and a total number of 10 retailers. He smallholder farmers are also busy there. Fertilizer sales
has also been instrumental in establishing demo plots to are down except for smallholder farmers who are doing
create awareness and demand. winter cropping. However, this year it is more worrisome
and Mr Mawindo is left with a very difficult decision about
how to reduce his overheads. He is faced with questions
The impact of COVID-19 on Mawindo like:
Enterprise • Should I lay off part of my staff during this period to
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has not spared Mawindo reduce the costs? and
Enterprise’s operations. The business has been hit so hard • Should I close my shops and transfer all the stock
that some of its business activities have had to be scaled to one store or warehouse in order to reduce the
down. The pandemic has come at a time when sales In overheads?
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