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Agro-input sellers are sometimes regarded as solely all in favour of being profitable any manner that’s attainable, in any other case generally known as “making a quick buck.” However enlightened sellers can mix the revenue motive with a priority for purchasers’ well-being to earn their belief and make a enterprise that lasts.
Richard Businge has a small store in Fort Portal, Uganda, promoting farm instruments, seeds and different inputs. In 2016 Richard found that he may use Entry Agriculture farmer coaching movies (www.accessagriculture.org) to draw and hold clients.
At college, Richard studied pc science and Monitoring and Analysis (M&E). His first job, as a part of a donor-funded venture, taught him how exhausting it was for farmers to seek out high quality inputs, so when the venture ended, Richard began his personal enterprise. However competitors was stiff.
Someday Richard talked about this to his mom, who had educated her kids by promoting items available in the market. At one level, she had taken second-hand clothes from market to market. So she prompt “take your merchandise to the farmers available in the market, moderately than have them come to you.”
So as soon as a month on market day Richard takes his two helpers and a few items in a taxi to one among six close by cities, going each six months to every market. Small cities in Uganda at all times have no less than one video corridor, referred to as a chivanda or bibanda, made from black plastic sheeting and lightweight wooden. Clients pay just a few cash to look at a business film, typically an motion movie. As soon as everyone seems to be seated, the chivanda door is closed.
Richard pays 100,000 Ugandan Shillings ($26) to get the only real use of the chivanda for 3 hours. First, he hires an individual to walk across the market with a loudspeaker, saying when and the place consumers can go to see free movies. “Farmers don’t miss this chance!”
Richard performs in style music for half an hour as folks drift in, permitting them to take their locations and never get too bored. He then performs a video which he has beforehand downloaded from Entry Agriculture and saved on a USB stick. He merely plugs the reminiscence stick into the chivanda’s film participant or laptop computer.
After the primary video, Richard takes questions from the viewers earlier than shifting on to a second and at last, a 3rd video. The movies solely final about quarter-hour every, however with the Query and Reply (Q&A) periods, and the music, Richard makes full use of the chivanda for 3 hours.
As a result of Richard reveals the movies at no cost, the chivanda door stays open on a regular basis, and farmers come and go continually. Simply exterior the chivanda door, Richard has a stall arrange the place his assistants promote items, together with a number of the items the farmers have seen within the movies, resembling PICS baggage (plastic baggage for protecting bugs out of saved beans and grain). Generally Richard reveals movies on how you can develop onions, which helps him to promote onion seed.
A veterinarian colleague units up a stand close by and sells animal well being merchandise; having two allied companies helps to draw extra clients.
Richard just isn’t an agriculturalist, however he reads rather a lot, and he appears to be like for data on the Web so he can reply farmers’ questions in the course of the video present. When he doesn’t know a solution, he says: “I don’t know, however I’ll discover out and get again to you.” Fielding questions provides Richard concepts for brand new subjects that curiosity farmers. He then discusses these on a chat present he does on the radio each Saturday morning within the native language, Lutoro.
Generally farmers who’ve seen the movies available in the market come into the store (Kiyombya Agro Enterprises) in Fort Portal and ask to look at a selected video once more. “Present me the one on onions!” Richard or an assistant is completely satisfied to play the video.
Richard says “Movies additionally helped to convey extra clients into my store. They belief extra what we’re promoting as a result of we have now the movies and due to the movies the shoppers know that I’ve extra data than another sellers. So, they arrive to seek out out extra.”
Constructing a clientele steadily, sharing concepts and incomes belief, might not be the quickest strategy to make a buck, however a enterprise that serves the group and helps a household could be constructed on enlightened self-interest, generally with slightly assist from farmer-learning movies.
Associated Entry Agriculture movies on storage baggage
Good storing and conserving maize grain
Storing and managing maize in a warehouse
Associated Entry Agriculture movies on onions
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