Madisi (Simbi) Community
Sensitization
Ace is running a warehouse receipt
project funded by Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) in partnership
with European Union (EU). Following a meeting held in February
2012, ACE organized a half day community sensitization in Msimbi 70
KM north of Lilongwe. The Session attracted a total of 15 Men and 3
Women from Msimbi association clubs which has 350 members divided
into 35 clubs. These included the club chairman, secretary, village
headmen and local farmers. At the moment, most farmers in Malawi do
not benefit much from their yields because they sell at low price
just after harvest. This is due to poverty and ignorance,
therefore, ACE has stepped in to help alleviate this.
The objective was to sensitize the
community on the benefits of the warehouse system. ACE decided to
help these farmers by enabling access loan up to 70% of their grain
value after they deposit their grain in third party insured
warehouses in order to meet their immediate cash needs. In this
scenario, the warehouse does not release collateral unless the loan
has been settled. Using this principle, a farmer is able to sell at
the right time when the prices are high which leads to high income
for a farmer and improved quality of life.
The community had complained about
lack of markets for their commodities and lack of marketing price
information. ACE, therefore, assured farmers that it links local
farmers to better markets and it also sends information to them
using sms alerts about prices in different markets .The
sensitization also dwelled on the fact that Ace also has the
Bidding system where a buyer bids to buy a commodity with special
terms and volume and potential suppliers make offers online or a
trading event hosted by ACE. This brought excitement to the
participants and they gave assurance that they will start using
Ace.
The outcome of the
Meeting
The chiefs agreed to meet with the
rest of the community using clubs on Saturday 23rd June,
2012 to share the news.
Ace trading agent for the area
agreed to meet the farmers whenever they need any information or
when they want to sell their commodities using Ace.
Looking Forward
Frequent community sensitization
would be required to check on the progress.