EMPRENDA Beira Corridor – Diversifying to Increase Wealth

Bizar Zeca is a true rural microentrepreneur with a myriad of small business activities. Zeca is a member of Heróis Moçambicanos Association in Chimoio and is a beneficiary of ACDI/VOCA’s EMPRENDA project. EMPRENDA stands for Empowering Private Enterprise in the Development of Agriculture in Mozambique’s Beira and Nacala Corridors. Earning $4,000 in 2005, he ranked 16th in sales among his association’s 2,357 members who reported to ACDI/VOCA.

Zeca earns a steady income from shoppers at his area’s Shoprite supermarket, which provides a contract market for the vegetables he produces, regularly buying up his cauliflower, watermelon, green peppers, eggplant and tomatoes. This dependable income has allowed Zeca to diversify his business activities by taking out a line of credit through EMPRENDA. Besides his almost $2,000 in vegetable sales, both under contract and in the local Beira market, Zeca also marketed 5 MT of beef in the Beira market for over $11,000 and sold 57 head of cattle for $12,500.

Zeca says that with help from ACDI/VOCA he has greatly improved his sales as well as his income. Beginning in 2005, he began accessing market price information through EMPRENDA and using this data to grow produce for the lucrative, off-season vegetable market. With the help of EMPRENDA’s assistance to his association, he has improved his planning skills and use of oxen for improved land preparation. Zeca knows now how to profitably sell his products at city markets and to urban retailers. In addition, he has learned to keep records and has received marketing training

With his revenues, Zeca buys seeds and other inputs to plant again. He has opened a savings account in SOCREMO Bank and a checking account in Banco Austral. Zeca has installed electricity in his house and is buying furniture. He plans to build a new house and acquire a small truck in 2007.

Zeca still faces many challenges. Because he doesn’t have extensive access to credit, he hasn’t expanded his planted area beyond two hectares. He believes that his businesses could improve if he had a minimum of $500 in credit each year. Storage and quality control are continuing problems, and Zeca has not been able to upgrade his irrigation infrastructure. He uses a dam during the dry months, but he still has to pay workers to manually water his plots using buckets and watering cans.

The EMPRENDA Alliance increases rural family incomes through creating and strengthening competitive rural enterprises and business-based farmer associations operating in the Beira and Nacala corridors. EMPRENDA, a consortium of ACDI/VOCA, TechnoServe Inc. and CLUSA, has helped smallholder business associations to generate $8.4 million in sales and rural enterprises to increase revenues to $14.4 million. EMPRENDA is also mobilizing $6 million in new rural finance by 2007. It will strengthen 540 primary level farmer associations and assist 34 mostly start-up rural enterprises.