Blog: Best Young Farmer Award 2018

Our Wiebe, Cocoa Tree Hugger (or: Agronomist), spends 3 months spread over the year in West Africa. He watches and advises the cocoa farmers on the productivity of their plantations. Think about: how can they plant the cocoa trees in the best possible way, with which shade trees, and which pesticides should they use and not use? In short: how can they make more efficient use of their plantations and increase production? After his travels, he talks about what he experiences here. Are you reading along?

Cocoa Tree Hugger Wiebe speaks..

In recent weeks I was in Ivory Coast and Ghana to see how things are going at the plantations and farmers we work with. In addition to training on productivity, it was up to me to kick off a project we are working on with our cooperatives: The Best Young Farmer Award. The Best Young Farmer Award is a competition for young farmers (18-35 years).  

Why a Best Young Farmer Award?
Youth are flocking to the city in search of jobs, but the employment opportunities are simply not there. As a result, the generation of cocoa farmers is aging rapidly and the productivity of the plantations is also declining. And that's a shame, because there are great opportunities for young, energetic men and women. Even in cocoa, and with this competition we hope to motivate young people.

How does the competition work?                                                 
From February to June/July, the young farmers are trained and assessed in the areas of productivity, quality of the beans and identifying and combating diseases. Hundreds (!) of young farmers have already registered in the past two weeks and a lot of work will be done on the plantations in the near future (pruning, weeding and preparations for the arrival of fertilizers). Of course, everything has to be made spick and span, because an initial selection of farmers who will go to the next round will soon be made. Only the best are allowed to move on to the next round. The cooperative's trainer trains the young farmers and they are expected to repeat these activities on their own plantations.

The committee, in which I have a seat from Tony's, visits the plantations again weeks later and the good farmers advance to the semi-finals. This trip we kicked off the competition with, yes, confetti cannons!

And the winner is...
What the prize will be remains to be determined. determined together with the cooperatives. We will award the prize during the annual meetings of the cooperatives in June and July! Curious about how that works? View the announcement of the winner of the BYFA 2016 at ABOCFA here:

I will keep you informed!

Chocolate greetings, Wiebe

Oh yes, p.s.: two more fun facts to share with you.

Fun fact #1: A while ago the price (determined in consultation) was a large television. This was won by a young farmer who lived in a village where there was no electricity. Since the entire community was happy with the television, they worked hard to get electricity, so they now have a television and electricity in the village.

Fun fact #2: Kapatchiva is considering contributing extra money from their own pocket so they can also set up the Best Young Female Farmer and Best Female Farmer Awards. Cheers!