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MBA student Shalni Chadwani didn't know much about agriculture but she does understand marketing. Using the knowledge and skills she has gained through her coursework in the College, she was able to assist a group of farmers in Guatemala who were looking to expand their product lines. The result has benefited both. Chadwani's efforts were part of a cooperative effort among a number of different groups, including the College and Winrock International, an international aid firm founded by former Arkansas governor Winthrop Rockefeller in the 1950s. Another was ATA/AGEXPRONT, the Guatemalan Non-Traditional Products Exporters Association, which helps farmers or producers obtain the know-how to grow their businesses and help the Central American country's economy. In this instance, that know-how came in the form of MBA student Chadwani.
After a brief orientation session, Chadwani toured a school of agriculture and spoke to the director. The institution hoped that she would undertake a study to see if it was viable to introduce Asian vegetables into the Guatemalan market. "I began with a preliminary study," she reported. "I spoke to a few of the Asian embassies from China, Japan, and Korea to find out how many people from those countries lived in Guatemala. It turned out that in Guatemala City there is a high concentration of Chinese restaurants. By interviewing, the owners, I found that they would be very willing to buy these vegetables if they were available at a decent price." She also visited small local Asian grocery stores to get a better grasp of the market in general. She found that these stores were selling substitutes instead of actual Asian vegetables. Therefore, she discovered, they constituted another potential market. The old proverb of "Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today; teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime" certainly applied to Chadwani's work. Not only did she put together a marketing plan and provide what the school needed to continue its work, but she also provided training about how to conduct market research in the future so they could accomplish new projects on their own. "I advised them to put together a local farmers' organization so they could exchange knowledge and information," she said. "I gave a presentation on my findings and made recommendations for future projects."
Chadwani is well qualified to undertake this sort of project. After completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Miami, she worked in marketing for about a year at So Smart! Productions, a South Florida company that produces and distributes animated videos for babies and toddlers. While at So Smart! she enrolled in the College's Evening MBA program. Later she changed jobs, working in currency exchange at a foreign exchange bank in Miami. As a result of that work and her experiences in Guatemala, Chadwani has become very interested in international relations. "This three-week project worked out very well for me," she said. "I feel that I got more out of it than they did." Chadwani graduates in May. She already has been accepted into an internship program in China where, ironically, she'll work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For someone who knew very little about agriculture, it now has become one of her areas of expertise.
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Her challenge was unique. Guatemalan farmers had a plan to grow Asian vegetables
such as bok choy, Chinese eggplant, Thai cucumbers, and others, primarily for export. However, the
growers also were required to sell a percentage of their products inside Guatemala. But how? And to
whom? 
The result has been extraordinary. Local Guatemalan producers planted and then
sold 65 hectares of vegetables. In just a few months they grew approximately 1,100 metric tons of
Asian vegetables and earned an estimated net income of US$135,000. 