Urda's Agricultural Venture - Pueblo Nuevo, Panamá

Economic Challenge

Urda Doviana is a skilled and knowledgable plantain farmer/vendor, wife and mother. Urda grew up watching her father manage his plantain business. When he passed away, she inherited some of his land and was able to use the techniques she learned from watching him to start growing plantains herself. Currently, Urda is able to generate some income from selling plantains, but is challenged with organizing her business operations and growing her sales. Ultimately, she aims to grow her plantain business to the size of her father’s, and use the income generated from the business to achieve her goals for herself and her family.

Solution

Student volunteers from UC Berkeley and the University of Houston collaborated with Urda to create tailored solutions to grow her agricultural business. We developed a planting system and schedule to diversify her produce offerings, as well as basic inventory and accounting system to keep track of production and sales. Some next steps for her in the future would be to develop strategies to increase her market share, and expand her land holdings using a loan from the community bank, supplemented by savings from her sales.