In 2020, Sawadogo Mamounata — a Burkina Faso-based insurance agent and mother of three — quit her job and started Deo Agro Food, a poultry and livestock feed manufacturing company.

In Burkina Faso, nearly 86 percent of the working population in the country’s rural areas derive their income from agriculture, presenting a lucrative business opportunity for feed sellers like Mamounata. Despite their reliance on agriculture, Burkina Faso’s population has been severely impacted by food and nutritional security. Violent extremist attacks compounded by ongoing land desertification and increased feed and fertilizer prices as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine have placed the country’s food systems under immense strain.

In 2022, Deo Agro Food applied and was accepted into the USAID CATALYZE Finance for Resilience (F4R) animal feed manufacturers program, receiving a $26,933 grant. Under Ukraine Supplemental Funding, the animal feed manufacturer program is designed to improve the availability of agricultural inputs and animal feed by incentivizing Burkinabe feed manufacturers to sell inputs at affordable prices to agro-enterprises, who then sell to smallholder farmers. The capital from these grants is designed to enable animal feed manufacturers to increase feed orders, allowing customers to purchase on credit rather than paying upfront. This approach reduces the credit gap faced by local agro-dealers and stimulates growth in local businesses.

Thanks to the CATALYZE F4R grant, Deo Agro Food has unlocked new opportunities for growth, including the recruitment of 12 new agro-retailers across the country and an accountant to support the company’s revenue increase.

Between February and May 2024, Deo Agro Food delivered over 158 tons of poultry feed to F4R partner agro-retailers, generating 53,702,500 XOF ($88,660) in sales. The grant allowed Deo Agro to sell approximately 50 tons of feed per month, an impressive 60 percent growth from their previous monthly average of just 30 tons.

As of June 2024, CATALYZE F4R’s six animal feed manufacturer partners have sold a collective 1,466,226 tons of animal feed worth​ $707,875 to agro-retailers, which has enabled 121 breeders and 2,840 farmers to gain access to poultry and small ruminant feeds.​ Deo Agro Food’s success — in the face of Burkina Faso’s ongoing food security and political crises — demonstrates the powerful combination of entrepreneurial dedication and innovation through collaborative partnerships, which stimulate innovation, foster growth in local business, and contribute to economic vitality and improved food security.

The CATALYZE F4R Activity uses blended finance to mobilize private capital for agricultural sector entrepreneurs — particularly women and youth — whose livelihoods are threatened by food insecurity and ongoing political instability by leveraging partnerships with financial institutions (FIs) and financial facilitators across Burkina Faso to expand access to credit for agricultural sector actors.