God doesn’t send bills

Today was spent at the Agri Service Centre at Rumphi where we had a brainstorming session on marketing. Our Sales Manager is Bertha (second from the right) and she is developing the marketing plan but we all had the chance to throw in ideas and talk it all through. The demo kit is a great set up, clearly illustrating what the pump does and my favourite comment was when one man said, “Using the sun is just like using an electric pump, but God doesn’t send bills!”   I can see that phrase turning up on our advertising leaflets.

One key benefit of irrigation is that you can grow all year and this is really important for processors who needs a year-round supply of raw material. We are teaming up with a women’s co-operative called Kwithu Kitchen who manufacture tomato puree and tomato sauce and need one tonne of tomatoes every day.  Our farmers, using Futurepumps, can grow for this market which is a great win-win solution.

The research work we are doing on polytunnels also feeds into this: tomatoes grown in polytunnels have fewer insect attacks, less fungal problems and can be grown all year round.  It’s great when projects can connect together like this and bring so much benefit.