Márcia Dima is founder of N’toko Organic Lda, a startup dedicated to adding value to solid waste through the production of biofertilizers and organic compost.
Through N’toko, she is promoting sustainable agricultural practices and advancing the circular economy in Mozambique, transforming waste into value and fostering environmental awareness at the community level.
Marcia Dima shared with Today Africa the story of N’toko Organic and how it all began.
Tell us more about yourself
This question is hard but let me try to explain who Marcia is. Marcia Dima is a young woman who’s curious to know the problems in people’s lives and how the people treat the environment.
Also I attended high school and got to know about entrepreneurship. This is one of the reasons why I started with N’toko. I really like to smile all the time.
Basically Marcia is happy and likes to talk to people, read books to learn more about everything I can. I’m married and also a mother, and I have to balance all these Marcias in only one.
What is the inspiration behind starting N’toko Organic?
Actually, it’s a big journey, actually. N’toko started in 2022, but before this I mentioned that there is something which I started in high school. And because of this I graduated in high school of entrepreneurship.
During my degree, I was motivated to check the challenges, and test opportunities. And after my graduation, my view of everything changed.
I was really concerned about sustainability because too many people started talking about sustainability, what we want to leave to the next generations.
And I also want to start doing something by myself, something that I can start from the beginning. In October of 2021, I saw a challenge, which was from Total Energy, I thought to myself, this is my opportunity.
And I started filling the form. While I was filling out the form, they asked, what is the name? Something just popped up in my mind and I wrote N’toko. I did not really know the meaning of N’toko.
Something just just came to my mind and I wrote it. And they asked, what is it? I wrote, doing compost based on organic waste but I was not aware how to do the compost biofertilizer. I just wrote it.
And during the progress of this challenge, I started feeling that they were serious. I have to know more about what I wrote to submit my form. And because of this, I really started to read more about how to do the compost by fertilizing the environment.
I started to get more motivated to do it. And suddenly, I won. People asked, how did you create this N’toko? I said, I don’t know. It’s something that popped out in my mind and I wrote it. I don’t know what to say, but I will change the name.
And they said, no, don’t change. We really like the name. This was desperation because I wanted to do something by myself. To feel that I’m contributing to the environment, I’m doing something.
As a young African woman who wants to change the mindset that some people have that Africans are not able to do some stuff and the women are not able to do some stuff. I want to prove to myself that I can do anything.
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Do you have a background in agriculture?
Yes. It’s a good question. I graduated from Agribusiness. This is one of the reasons but I had no practical background in agriculture but specifically in the aspect of business. I mean, we have to know how to produce, but it was not our focus.
Our focus was to do it commercially and how to transform the agricultural products, and this was our focus. But since I was a child, I liked to see the plants but I’m scared about animals. So I think this is also one of the reasons I prefer decompost.
What were the challenges that you faced in the beginning of starting your business?
The big challenge was convincing the people because they’re used to using chemicals. In their point of view, it’s faster, the products grow faster, and they have big quantities in this small time.
Also because of the costs, the organic products in general here in Mozambique specifically. I think around the world it is the same. And this was the main issue because when we talk to the farmers, agricultors, gardeners, etc.
They want to buy in big quantities, but it’s not affordable to them, because they also have to care about costs versus productivity. And at the end of the day, they have to make sure that they are saving money and make their business sustainable.
For them, in this line, using chemicals is more affordable to them, and not organic products. This was a big issue, but we also know that some of the farmers have information that it’s good and right to use organic products; bio-fertilizer, bio-composts, bio-pesticides, everything which is organic.
They know that it’s important because of the impact and also the quality of the product. They know that the quality of the product using organic and chemical is different. And also they know the benefits. But the issue here is money.
Also the limitation for us at N’toko is the financial limitations and also some technical tools. Because what we want now is to mechanize our operations, but because of financial limitations, we are not able to buy the right machines we have.
We need to operate on a big scale. Also, the bureaucracy here is one of the issues. But because of the support we have from some of the organizations here also, we know other entrepreneurs who are working in this green and blue field now.
What strategies are you putting in place to be able to overcome all these challenges?
To keep Ntoko alive, we have to keep to the changes which the market is asking us to do.
And one of the strategies was this, to get our product, considering the quantity of our product they are buying, we gave them technical assistance for anything, and for any doubt they have, we are there to respond.
Also we had to give our products to them to start using it in a small quantity in a specific space so that they can also test our product and make a decision whether they can buy it or not.
When they start seeing the results, they come to us, and they refer us to others. This was the strategy because we believe that the reputation and also the only experience you have of the products, you can easily pass this information to others.
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Tell us more about N’toko Organic, your products and services
We keep facing the challenges and we had to stop our operations last year. I think one of the reasons we delayed this interview was this. Because last year, we had some post-election issues and we felt that we had two options, either close it or just stop for some time.
We agreed to stop the operations for some time to see if the situation will calm and fortunately things are coming back to normal now and we are restarting.
But this with the partnerships we have and now our approach is more with the people in which they don’t have to use chemicals in their gardens.
And also calling us because they know that there is N’toko here. Now we’re starting to build compost bins in some homes. And fortunately, we are also getting good feedback.
People are happy and this also is good for us because the basis of N’toko existence is because of the consciousness we want to change in people that we have to take care of the environment and they can see by themselves
I can say that we are also getting surprised because the plants are developing and becoming gigantic. And we ask why people don’t know that using organic products is good.
They can take tomatoes, courgettes, and cook. The taste is different and also good for human beings. This is our focus now. And we are working to see how we can work with the farmers so we can see the results in a short time.
Because we think that we are not doing enough and we want to start with some farmers which we have already contacted on how to improve the activities with them and also expand these actions.
Because in urban areas we can easily work with farmers but in rural areas how they produce there is different. We have some issues because of the weather here in Mozambique. Now we want to focus on how to create more impact.
People were doubting us and didn’t have experience using organic products. And others had this experience with using other kinds of products. We also discovered that people sometimes do biofertilizer but not using organic products 100%.
They use sugar and we know that sugar has some chemicals and there’s different ways to produce the biofertilizer.
And we explained to them that our products use vegetables, the waste from gardens, organic waste from our kitchens, and we work deeply to make sure that our raw material is in good condition.
So in this way we can guarantee that our final product, which is bioFertilizer also is in good condition. And when they use it, they start seeing the difference and know that we are offering a good product.
How do you get the waste used in producing your products?
We get them from our homes and families, because we bought some plastic bins and we distributed them to people who were able to receive them from us. And we extract what to deposit in those bins and we started doing compost on a small scale.
Also to learn more and see what are the mistakes we have to watch out for and when we saw that the first product was good, we started asking others to give us their waste. We asked them to give us the waste and also we started speaking with the market people.
Here we have people selling vegetables and sometimes it’s not all vegetables they are able to sell and we ask them to drop it into the container but they were asking for some money.
And we knew if we pay them, it won’t be good for us because we are not able to spend more money, or even to buy raw material, because we have alternatives to get it for free.
But we keep an eye for the market because they only drop to the container. And this is how we started getting the organic waste and also there are some people who don’t even know what to do with organic waste.
This is the way we started and having this experience, we started to approach the companies, some restaurants, and also the partnership with people who collect the waste.
They collect different kinds of waste but they don’t give the right treatment to these waste. That was our target and we caught this opportunity.
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Since you started your business, what has worked in attracting and retaining customers?
We make them feel that they are part of the family and to change their mindset that if you want to contribute something, you have to do it by yourself and don’t wait for the municipality.
And we try to make ways to see what we can do with the waste, unfortunately here I don’t have it, but when we just show them that see this is a biofertilizer.
“To keep Ntoko alive, we have to keep to the changes which the market is asking us to do.”
We showed them the organic waste. They start asking us questions like, how is it possible? How is organic waste a liquid now? Please explain. We go ahead to explain to them how to segregate the waste and in which ways they can use the compost, the biofertilizer.
Doing this makes them get more interested and so we put some alternatives to them. If you buy and because we use plastic to conserve the fertilizer and we ask them if you return to have this plastic, we offer you a discount.
So they feel more involved with our business because if you don’t involve the customers in your business they will run away. But you involve them and they buy in January 2014 she will come back and ask, Marcia, do you still have this product? Yes, we do. Come and buy.
This is the way we keep people coming back. Now, we have started to construct compost bins in some houses. This way we are trying to involve them in the process. So we also use the compost and biofertilizer in their gardens and they’re seeing the difference.
And it’s easier for them to tell others, please contact N’toko and talk with them. They’re having some good products. This is the strategy.
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How is your business doing today and what does the future look like?
Our future, we are going to be focused on rural areas. We are also trying to be more engaged because we discovered that people only want to eat organic products.
We also want to start in a small area and cultivate some products like tomatoes, onions and cabbage and show the people that it is possible. Give some tutorials on how to produce and also show the benefits of products.
Because people think that using organic products is just only for the environment but they forgot it’s also good for human beings. We are all taking care of ourselves. Also buy some equipment that we can use for large operations.
Because now we are operating in Maputo which is in the south of Mozambique but we also want to touch the north of Mozambique. There are some products that we can use, which is N’toko.
What are some key lessons that you have learned in your journey as an entrepreneur?
There are some times which I feel unmotivated and want to give up, but it’s specifically when I have these emotions. People come to me and ask about the products or do a partnership. And they keep saying to me, Marcia, please don’t give up. Just continue.
When you start a business or anything which we believe is good for our lives, even if it’s hard, we have to find a way to keep our strengths, keep working, and think in another way to overcome the challenges we have.
Because it’s not the only time we can do something which we’ve decided because sometimes it’s about making an impact. Be with the right people because there are some people who keep you down, there are others who really want you to be on top.
What advice would you give to others, especially women who want to start their own business?
Women have some natural orientations and we have to start using them in our favor. That we are strong and we are intelligent. We have so many things to do, for instance, I have a family to take care of, a business,and a job to take care of.
So first, there is Marcia and Marcia has dreams. And to make these dreams come true, it’s necessary to start. You have to start. Even if your dream is bigger than the world, you have to start. The first step is important.
We can’t make things perfect. Nothing will be perfect and when we start, we have to keep going even if it’s hard. And things may not always work out as we planned them, but if you believe in your report and you stay strong, it will be better in the end. So this is my advice to the people.
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