Agatha Bags Nutrition For All as she Secures a Livelihood for her Family

Agatha showcasing her soya nutrition flour "Sote Lishe"  

Agatha Mkayula,49, a mother of 6 children, resides in Ibumila village in Iringa DC, Tanzania. In 2017, she engaged in the Growing is Learning project. She has received multiple trainings in Soya farming practices, Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), home gardening, Participatory Scenario Planning, post-harvest management, recordkeeping & data quality, food types, Gender-Based Violence and entrepreneurship. Agatha had an opportunity of participating in the soybean processing training in 2018 and commenced her small scale business. She processed soybean drinks and nutritional flour for children/adults in the same year. "I was engaged in a project as a mere farmer with an increased responsibility of being a lead farmer," Agatha says. Conversely, it was an eye-opener for her. However, Agatha used soft plastic bags to pack soybeans products which limited my markets opportunities due to the use of poor packaging materials. This resulted in her selling at the village level in a minimal quantity of its own. "I used to process 10kgs of Soybean which could last for a month before it sold, hence no visible income increase in my family," Agatha added.
Sote Lishe meaning 'Nutrition To All' is contains Soya nutritional flour founded in 2018.

 

Agatha's 'Sote Lishe' In early 2020, Agatha was trained on products branding and packaging and facilitated on branding her Nutritional flour with the brand name “Sote Lishe” meaning “Nutrition to All”. This transformed her opportunities. Agatha packed 45 bags of soybean flour and sold them all, receiving a total of Tsh 159,000 ($68). Moreover, she participated in the National Farmers exhibition and connected with other entrepreneurs. She also sold eight bags of Nutritional flour worth Tsh 24,000 ($10.39). “I am witnessing several direct and indirect benefits of my engagement in processing of soybeans, and specifically on the branding and packaging of my products. My products are now good looking and well preserved for a longer time. It has all the competitive advantages. Therefore, increasing sales have resulted to the contribution of my family income increase,” Agatha explained.

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