Oumou Camara (pictured above) was the first person to arrive at myAgro’s Tambacounda store on registration day. She became our first official myAgro member in Senegal and even paid her packet in full the same day!
Oumou is one of our “Farmer Leaders” who saved for small 1/16 hectare pacakges of certified seed, fertilizer and training.
Oumou and other Farmer Leaders are excited to work with us this year, and we’re hoping to use their enthusiasm to launch a full enrollment process later this year for a wider group of farmers who are waiting to see the results from the Farmer Leaders’ fields.
To find the Farmer Leaders, we asked our field agents to survey various farmers in each village to find out whom they would go to for advice and see as a Farmer Leader in their village. The agents then identified at least three potential farmer leaders based on how respected they are in the community, their farm yields and how likely they are to use fertilizer and certified seed.
We held meetings to explain myAgro to the Farmer Leaders and explained the role of the small packages in “testing” myAgro before rolling out a larger enrollment next season. Farmer leaders will plant the 1/16 hectare packages and then lead farmer discussions in front of their farms to share their thoughts on myAgro and our planting packages. We’re betting on farmers like Oumou, her strong social capital and word-of-mouth marketing strategy to increase our farmer numbers for 2014.
