Page 81 - AFAP Success Stories 2020

The impact of COVID-19 on input • During the recently ended season Peter Mawindo
supplies established almost 500 demos across the district.
However, he did not manage to conduct field days as
It is Peter Mawindo’s experience from previous years in required due to restrictions on social distancing.
the agrodealer business, that in the period from April to
June his company’s sales usually pick up again after the These are just a few of the factors that have led to the slow
season. This is because farmers are busy buying crop- movement of the business.
protection products, inputs for winter and, in some
instances, also fertilizers after they sell their produce.
However, the situation this year has changed. During this The impact of COVID-19 on output
period, Mr Mawindo says, “I would push up to 300mts of marketing
fertilizer but now I only have 53mts. And in terms of seed
during winter the business would push about 15mts but This year’s output market has other uncertainties.
to date we have only moved 3mts of seed”. COVID- 19 has
affected his business as follows: • Most of the exporters with oversees contracts are not
• Malawi is a landlocked country and is dependent on sure that their overseas market are going to honor
neighbouring countries such as Mozambique and their contracts because of the lockdowns. Whilst this
Tanzania. Due to the border closure in most countries, may seem to be a threat to local produce, it is also an
suppliers do not have enough inputs to distribute to opportunity to buy more produce and stock for future
agrodealers. sales locally.
• Most suppliers have in stock inputs such as Personal • Some large buyers have scaled back the quantities of
Protective Equipment (PPEs), which are not required in the produce they were expecting to buy.
large quantities by farmers. • Purchasing power has gone down and this has
• The business has been utilizing farmers in groups affected Mawindo Enterprise negatively because not
and cooperatives. They buy in bulk and sometimes as many farmers as expected are buying inputs.
this is done in an arranged market setup, for which
Mr Mawindo delivers the inputs. This not the case The decision to invest in output marketing is affecting
this year as large crowds are not allowed to gather at Peter Mawindo personally. He has to make the decision
one place. Farmers have to make arrangements for between investing in the purchase of produce to meet
themselves and this is affecting vulnerable groups anticipated huger, or not doing this for fear that he will
such as the elderly and disabled who used to benefit not be able to find a market should the situation stabilize.
from this initiative. The prices for farm produce have gone down but as an
• Most farmers are selling their produce at a cheaper agrodealer he does not have the financial muscle to
price due to a lack of reliable markets and fewer buy the produce. Every year by this time, he would have
customers, and therefore they have less money to bought 200mts of farm produce but he has only managed
purchase inputs. to buy 125mts.
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