Montši AgriVest scoops business plan contest

LIKELELI MAJARA and

SERIALONG LELUMA RAMPO

MASERU – Montši AgriVest, a mosotho owned company that specialises in vegetable production and distribution, has been announced the winner of the Basotho Enterprises Development Corporation (BEDCO) Business Plan Competition (BPC). Montši AgriVest is the brainchild of Montši Montši, a qualified farmer with a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture from the National University of Lesotho (NUL). He specialises in vegetables production. Montši started practicing farming at the age of 14 where he would farm cabbages, potatoes, garden peas and spinach to mention a few.

Besides four years’ experience in agriculture, he has been farming different vegetables so far and has also compiled a vegetables production guidebook available in both the Sesotho and English languages from his experience which is being used by many aspiring commercial farmers right now. During his school days at NUL, Montši started planning an agriculture project in his third year at the university, that was in 2016. He explained that he even had an internship at the university farm so as to gain some experience.

After graduating from the university in 2017 he executed his plan in 2018 even though he did not have enough capital. He had to sell some of his belongings and even after that the business faced failure despite him holding a degree in agriculture. Looking back, he said it was because he did not have enough experience, but just a lot of theory. He has since learned a lot through failure and mistakes. Montši AgriVest currently produces and distributes vegetables locally only since it’s still a small company. As a young farmer who is concentrating on vegetables production and distribution for now, he explained that one of the major challenges he faces is lack of water supply.

“Lack of water has been the serious challenge and impediment to my business. Vegetables need a lot of water to grow and mature on time.“Unfortunately, I did not have a reliable water source like a borehole; I depended on a small dam which dries out fast. At times I had to travel some distance to fetch water for the crops. I also had to take a break when there was no rainfall,” he said. Responding to a question on winning BPC, Montši said he was very happy when he received the email bearing the good news.

“I kept reading the email time and again because I could not believe it,” Montši noted, adding that “I am going to drill a borehole with the funding, buy more land and upscale the business.” Montši hopes for the company to one day contribute to food production at national level and beyond the borders of Lesotho. He says he is also planning to have subsidiaries with the AgriVest Holdings as the holding company. He also wants to focus on sheep farming, farming inputs and consultancy, fruits and vegetables storage, as well as farm feeds and medication.