With more than 32% Africa’s gross domestic product coming from the agricultural sector, our economy is inherently dependent on agriculture.
Although we are depend on this sector, our agricultural productivity still remains far from developed world standards. Over 90% of agriculture depends on rainfall, with no artificial irrigation aid. Agriculture in Africa also experiences basic infrastructural problems such as access to markets and financing.
Against these odds, 33 year old Thokozani Chimasula, from Chitsatsa village in Central of Malawi, prides herself in being one of the farmers that contribute to our Agricultural industry. She is the founder of Tac-Maz Sustainable ventures, a company that focuses on organic livestock and crop production.
Thokozani studied a Bachelors of Arts degree in Humanities from Chancellor College and a post-grad qualification in Social Accountability from Rhodes University.
“My career started as a Child Protection Manager with Theatre for a Change, followed by being a National Equality coordinator for Concern Universal, now United Purpose,” she mentioned. She is currently a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) manager for Centre for Alternatives for Victimized Women and Children, a Malawian robust NGO that promotes Women Empowerment, amongst a handful of other activities she is involved in.
Even with such a hectic career, Thokozani still found the time to focus on her dream of poverty alleviation through entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector. Through her company, she is currently raising pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, rabbits, quails, pigeons and a few cows.
“My desire is to raise as many breeds of livestock as we can so that people have a choice to make out of the variety we can offer them. We are also growing maize, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and a variety of vegetables- organically. Our aim is to provide communities with a variety of affordable and high quality organic food products for excellent health and sustainable living.”
Underlying this is the involvement of young people who will be trained in organic farming freely and be groomed with entrepreneurship skills.
For such a busy woman, many may wonder what inspired the idea.
“It started in 2015 when I decided I could no longer go back to work after my contract with United Purpose. Exactly a month after I left work, when I was heavily pregnant at 9 months, I bought a piece of land using my investments and savings.
I started the construction of animal houses with the support of my husband. We could stay without money, or food and we could survive on just a meal a day. It was tough, and sometimes I thought of quitting and going back to my career life, but something inside me kept pushing me to keep on.”
From June 2015 to March 2016 they managed to set up structures for animal housing. They managed to build 23 animal houses and construction is still under way. They have managed to buy another piece of land for cultivation of maize which is an important feed element for the livestock. They also produce compost manure from the animal and crop residues.
“We haven’t reached our break- even point yet, but we are still surviving from the chicken and vegetable sales. In my dream, I see the company growing and expanding to so many areas within and outside Malawi. With GMO free food products, we are good to go. I believe in the next five years we will be able to reach out to more than 1000 young people with skills in organic farming and start up packages so that it should not be about me, rather about us and them and those others as well.”
Thokozani’s dream doesn’t end here.
Her next plans are to buy green houses, solar powered irrigation systems, more cultivation land, feed making machines and bicycle carts for product selling and delivery.
“I will work hard with all my heart and energy to have this dream come to reality for the benefit of people around me and the generations to come; for healthier lives and sustainable living and achievement of Sustainable Goal number 11 of creating sustainable communities,” Thokozani closed.
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