inBUSINESS Issue 14

it was what I wanted to do because I
could rely on support from my family.
Although it was mainly done on a
subsistence level, crop farming has been
the lifeblood of our family going back
generations. Our lives have revolved
around going to our farmland at
Ditshukudu.”
She remembers how she was a new
mother when she underwent on-site
training by Rural Industries Innovation
Centre, the good old RIIC, in how to
operate the milling machinery bought for
her with the soft loan that is 50% a grant.
The plant is made up of a dehuller, which
is used to separate bran from sorghum,
and a hammer mill for sifting.
“Those guys
from RIIC were
thorough,” says
Kooagile. “They
would take the
equipment apart
and ask me to reassemble
it.”
It is seven years later today, and
the erstwhile novice is so established
that she has paid back more than half
the loan and has a good share of the
market for schools, hospitals and prisons
in Molepolole, Takatokwane, Sojwe,
Kopong, Gabane and Tlokweng. “My
biggest client right now is Molepolole
Prison,” she notes. “They buy 400 bags
of sorghum meal per month. Each bag is
10kg.
Local households form an important
part of her customer base, especially
women for feeding their families in
a country where bogobe (sorghum
porridge) is still very much a daily staple.
A smattering of men does come through
mainly to purchase bran for cattle.
Kooagile has achieved a good deal of
success and is grateful to God because
she says it was not easy in the beginning.
She sources her inputs from BAMB,
the Botswana Agricultural Marketing
Board that supplies Monate Wa Temo
mainly with Mr Buster sorghum brand,
a medium maturity grain sorghum that
Kooagile describes as “of less chaff”
that she also intends to plant at her own
farmland at Hatsalatladi for her own use
“because it is often out of stock”.
She lists lack of her own premises
at the top of her current challenges.
Thankfully, she has a plot that she
plans to develop within in a year at
Gamodubu, and is fully aware that this
will entail relocating from Molepolole.
Kooagile bubbles with energy, leaving
me panting for breath as she shows
me around the small-scale plant. The
ambitions of this 32-year old mother of
two include having a maize processing
plant for production of another of
Botswana’s staples – phaleche (maize
meal).
At present ‘Monate’ has four
employees who were all personally
trained by Kooagile, who is also an HR
alumni of Molopolole-based Kweneng
Rural Development Association where
she graduated in 2008. She is keen on
marketing and scooped second position
at this year‘s Youth Business Expo.
www.inbusiness.co.bw | Issue 14 | 2017 31