CATALIST
Burundi • DR Congo • Rwanda
Catalyze Agricultural Intensification for Social and Environmental Stability
a project for the great lakes region of central africa
Success Story
Congolese father and son team Dominique and Germain Shamavu educate farmers about ISFM to increase sales and farmers’ harvests
F
armers in South Kivu have long been discouraged from using fertilizer, explains Germain Basengere Shamavu, an agronomist and ecologist. “No one knows the reason for this perception,” he says, but he acknowledges that offering fertilizers to customers is a challenge when supplies are difficult to source.
W
hile fertilizers are generally costly for farmers, Germain maintains that the biggest obstacle is the popular belief that it is harmful. He wants to spread the message to farmers about the benefits of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM). “By mixing organic and mineral fertilizers, I think ISFM can change this perception and I would like to help popularize its use,” he says. For more than two decades, Germain’s father Dominique was the sole supplier of farm and agricultural products in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As an entrepreneur, Dominique saw an opportunity when local farmers who had worked on large export crop plantations began asking for fertilizers. Large plantations import their own supplies directly, and their workers have witnessed the benefits. The workers then came to Dominique’s shop seeking fertilizers to get the same results on their own smaller fields. Germain describes the ongoing difficulty to obtain sufficient stock, saying, “My father has tried very hard through different avenues to source supplies for his store.” Dominique began to seek out new sources for fertilizer supplies after the 2006 Abuja Fertilizer Summit resulted in sub-regional agreements for tariff-free fertilizer imports, but he still found numerous barriers. In 2008, CATALIST invited Dominique to a workshop on ISFM in Rwanda. Due to the scarcity of fertilizers on the Congolese market, very few people understood the most basic facts about using fertilizers properly. The workshop provided the education needed to bridge the gap between using the product and getting good results. The following year, Dominique attended a workshop on business marketing. The workshops showed the importance of asking customers questions in order to make recommendations about the appropriate fertilizers to use according to what the customers were planting. This approach has helped to dispel the negative beliefs about fertilizers, since only proper usage can provide the full benefits. “Before attending these workshops, we just handed farmers whatever they asked for,” recalls Germain. “Now we ask questions!” “Not giving advice can mean poor results,” Germain says. He is convinced that if demand increases, supplies will follow, so Germain – through his organization the Ecological Action Network – is helping to spread the message by producing an illustrated “cartoon” series creatively explaining ISFM to farmers.
Today, Dominique’s business is no longer the sole agro-input dealership in South Kivu, but he and his family continue to see a steady rise in the sale of fertilizers. “I know sales and profit margins could be much higher if supplies could increase,” argues Germain, who intends to follow in his father’s footsteps as an agro-input dealer.
CATALIST/SEW Henk Breman (Chief of Party) | This is a publication of the IFDC-implemented CATALIST Project. | www.ifdc-catalist.org | ifdcrwanda@ifdc.org Funding is generously provided by the Netherlands Directorate-General for Development Cooperation (DGIS).
PROJECT HEADQUARTERS
BURUNDI OFFICE
CONGO DRC OFFICE
HELPAGE CRGL
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