Bavugamenshi Fidèle is a 40-year aged man with a wife and four children, resident of Munyinya Village, Nyakibungo Cell, Gishubi Sector in Gisagara District. He joined the COAMANYA Gishubi cooperative in 2015 and grew maize on a half-hectare in Akanyaru Marshland.

Bavugamenshi revealed that before benefiting from the technical support from FtMA, he repeatedly faced problems with low productivity and post-harvest loss due to a lack of enough skills in Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs) and Post-Harvest Handling and Storage (PHHS) and selling the harvest at a low price.

For instance, in 2016A, he grew maize on 0.5ha and harvested about 450kg, less than 1 Metric Ton (MT) per hectare, which means that he did not have maize to sell because there was no surplus.

After receiving training in Good Agriculture Practice (GAPs) and Post-Harvest Handling and Storage (PHHS), he increased production quantitatively and qualitatively to secure home consumption and sell the maize surplus to formal buyers through market linkage facilitated by Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA). From the sales, he managed to save and open a shop and buy a motorbike.

The story was changed! Bavugamenshi testified to the increase in maize productivity up to 2 Metric Tons at half-hectare and used the revenue generated from sales in 2020 to open a shop estimated at 300,000 Frw.

In the 2022B season, Bavugamenshi sold 870kg at 460 Frw/kg to AIF through the COAMANYA Gishubi cooperative, generating 400,200 Frw. He topped up his saving with the above sales revenue to buy a brand-new motorbike at 1,800,000 Frw to ease his transport.

COAMANYA Gishubi Cooperative includes 672 farmers; among them, 211 are women. They grow maize on consolidated land of 60 hectares. COAMANYA Gishubi joined the Farm to the Market Alliance (FtMA) in 2017. From then, the coop members are benefiting from the FtMA interventions, including helping smallholder farmers transition to commercial agriculture by providing adequate information, investment, and support at all stages, from seed to market and empowering smallholder farmers to become reliable market players through access to four integrated pathways: predictable markets, affordable finance, technologies, and quality inputs, such as seeds, fertilizers, and post-harvest handling and storage solutions.

Some COAMANYA Gishubi Cooperative members improved their living conditions by creating off-farmer income-generating activities like this Bavugamenshi Fidèle, who opened a shop.