Warm, green, beautiful. I think those where the first thoughts on which this SMART team agreed on in our first encounter after landing in Malawi. Welcome everybody to this blog, where we will be sharing with you readers the highlights and personal and group impressions of our trip.
For the ones that do not know us, we are a team of five people, graduate and undergraduate students from different Cornell University departments, carrying out a project, a service/learning opportunity in an emerging market. We form part of the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART), an initiative organized by Cornell University that links groups of Cornell students with small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) that operate in emerging markets. Students from different areas of expertise are then engaged to provide different types of consultancy activities to these companies, with the main goal of helping these businesses in the area or areas that they need.
Our team is a diverse one; one that aims to combine the knowledge from different areas. We have a total of three graduate students, two of them currently doing an MPS in International Agriculture and Rural Development, Ackson J. Mwanza, originally from Zambia and with a background in Agronomy, and Luna H. Lee, originally from Malaysia and with a background in Communications, Advertising and Public Relations. The third one is Susana Constenla Villoslada, originally from Spain with a background in Agricultural Engineering and currently doing an MS in Applied Economics and Management (AEM). We also count with a Senior undergraduate student, Brianna Douglas, pursuing a B.S. in Biology and Society, also with experience in Social Impact in Agriculture, International Marketing and Communications. And last but not least, our team leader, Tara K. Hammonds, recently graduated with an MPS International Agriculture and Rural Development.
So, this is us, and this is what brought us to Lilongwe, Malawi. We are here to work with Perisha Agro, an agricultural company based in Lilongwe, which main activity is the production of Cassava and Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP). The company’s CEO is a woman, Fannie Gondwe, native from Malawi, mother of three kids; that worked as a Regional Finance Officer under the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) until 2012, when she decided to concentrate fully in her agricultural company. A woman that, after the three days that we have been meeting with her here in Malawi can be only described as amazing.
Fannie got linked with the SMART program through Making Markets Matter, another Cornell initiative that provides business management training to owners and managers of small and medium enterprises throughout all the African continent. Until now the company has been doing really well, mainly selling multiplication parts, cuttings and vines, of Cassava and OFSP, respectively. The company also produces and sells the roots of both crops, but that forms a smaller part of the total company’s revenues. So, the readers might ask themselves at this point… if Perisha Agro is doing so well (because she is actually doing very well), what does she request the collaboration with SMART? Well, Fannie Gondwe is a true entrepreneur, and after putting together all the knowledge that she has about the Malawian agricultural market and production sectors, she is leading Perisha Agro to jump to manufacturing. The company is about to start producing High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF), turning into one of the very few companies in the country that brings added value to the agricultural production. Our main contribution to Perisha Agro as a team will be to create a business plan for the production of HQCF and draft another business plan for the production of OFSP flour.
With that in mind we started our work on Monday (01/07), with a group meeting trying to figure out the right questions to ask to Fannie in the first encounter that we were going to have that afternoon. The meeting was also joined by Mainza Mugoya, a very experienced Cornell alumni with a Masters in AEM that came to share his expertise with us. After framing all the questions, we had our first meeting with Fannie Gondwe (finally!). We have already talked to her during the previous months preparing for our trip and we were really looking forward to meeting this woman in person. What we found did not disappoint us. We found a very vital woman, with a big smile on her face and a beautiful colorful dress, very happy to see us and giving us a warm welcoming. She took us to her house to have this first meeting, where she introduced us to her two sons, Junior and Delano, and to his husband. Junior is 26 years old, with an MBA and actively involved in his mother’s company. Delano is 24 years old, finishing his degree in Agronomy and probably going to form part of the company after his graduation.
After showing us her office (which is in her house so she can be closer to her husband while she works), we all sit at her porch. We presented ourselves to her, and what our main deliverables intend to be, to make clear that we are all in the same page and that we can help her in what she really needs. Following that, we ask Fannie who knows how many questions about Perisha Agro and the Malawi’s agricultural sector, and she shared other relevant information about her company. Some of the core values of the company also came clear after that meeting. Perisha Agro is a business that cares about nutrition. They want to produce crop varieties that have a high nutritional value and that can help to fight malnutrition.
When we all thought that we have got enough information for the day, we enjoyed some treats and beverages that Fannie brought us. She then showed us the machine that is going to make possible the manufacture of the Cassava into High Quality Cassava Flour and potentially also OFSP flour. Fannie herself found the necessary funding to acquire this machine though a matching grant. The machine is about to be set up and put ready to work. With a great impression of her and the company, and a lot of information to process we put an end to our first day working hand in hand with Perisha Agro.
Tuesday (01/08), second day, day for field trips. We went to see the fields where the company grows the crops, Cassava and OFSP, and also to meet the five fulltime workers that the company has in Lilongwe, the district where most of the fields that the company owns are located. Fannie showed us the agricultural practices that she uses, and we continue with our endless asking of questions, trying to collect as much information as possible of the company. With the answers that Fannie gave to our questions it came clear the knowledge that she has about good agronomic practices. That fact, in combination with the effort that she puts on linking the company with the market, might explain in great part why this company is doing so well (the company has won several grants and prices). During our visit, Fannie also explains how she tries to hire as much women as possible. Women’s empowerment is another core value of Perisha Agro. We took a lot of pictures, had some good quality time together, and then went back to the hotel to put together all the information that we had collected and prepare for the great number of important meetings that we were going to have the next day.
Next post: Meetings with some of the organizations that Perisha Agro is involved with: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Potato Center (CIP), the Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Malawi Investment and Trade Center (MITC), among others. Stay tuned!
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