Before Belita Gavanala (from Zidyana EPA, Nkhotakota) joined AWILI in 2021, she was into scrap metal selling to earn a living. She has been active in farming since 2009, using revenues from her scrap metal selling business, she managed to purchase 2.5 acres of land for rice farming which yearly yielded 7 to 10 bags of 50 kg rice per acre with unreliable markets to sale to. In 2021 she decided to venture into other lucrative high value chains, a move away from regular crops thanks to AWILI.
Belita, born in 1972 is from Nkhanga Club, Chitedze village, group village headman Ntawa, Traditional Authority Kalimanjira in Zidyana EPA, Nkhotakota District. She has 5 children and in 2021 she reluctantly joined AWILI. After attending the AWILI awareness campaign, she was convinced by the model and decided to inform his husband who seconded the idea of joining through Nkhanga club, a club that meets a stone throw away from their house.
”I took a loan of 300g of birds eye chili seed in 2021, my instincts told me that it would be profitable, I later on informed my husband and convinced him on how this would boost our household economy and food security. We have no regrets for making the decision to join AWILI. I paid back the loan in kind as fast as I could and realized high revenues from the excess produce’’.
In early 2021 Belita took a loan of chilli production and paid back as early as she could and managed to produce an excess of 55kg on a quarter acre and sold the whole of it for MWK2000/kg realizing in excess of $105.
In 2021/2022 seasons he took a loan of 300g of chilli and then rented an irrigation water pump for the chilli which is able to pump about 500 litres a day, she sources the water from a nearby stream in the village. Their ambitions is to purchase a bigger pump for their rice and chilli farm by the end of the year using money from the chilies and rice sales proceeds.