MASO is a five year programme, focused on creating employment opportunities for the youth (aged 18-25) in Ghana’s cocoa communities.
Judita, now proudly owns an acre of newly planted cocoa farm in Liate Wote.
Judita Adagbledu is a high school graduate who grows maize, cassava, yam, plantains and vegetables mainly for consumption at home. He also supported his parents on their cocoa farm but never considered himself becoming a cocoa farmer.
Cocoa farming is not a big business in his community. The fortunes of cocoa farmers declined during wide-ranging bush fires some years ago. The community survives mostly by serving tourists who visit’s Afadjato, Ghana’s highest mountain and Tagbo Falls.
Judita like many young men and women in his community is also a tour guide, a role he relied on for his economic survival. This was until the MASO Programme entered his community in 2016 and his mind set about cocoa farming changed.
“Cocoa farming has a future for the youth. It is a viable long-term source of income. I will also grow cocoa”, he said.
Judita enrolled in the MASO Agro Academy at age 25 in the Afadjato South District to train as a professional cocoa farmer.He received training in good agronomic practices (technical knowledge) in combination with social, financial and leadership skills (life skills) over a12-month period.
Judita at a youth leadership training
The MASO training is based on youth-centred learning and intended to provide both theoretical and practical learning experiences. An approach Judita, found helpful.
“ MASO has given me more knowledge about cocoa farming as a business and life in general. MASO has helped me build my self-confidence, I am now able to express myself better among my peers and I have also gained leadership skills”.
Judita with his peers at a MASO youth gathering in Liate Wote
Judita has also become aware of other opportunities available in the cocoa sector for the youth. He has subsequently, enrolled in the MASO Business Incubator to train as an entrepreneur.
“ It is my dream to become a great entrepreneur in Liate Wote with a big agro-input shop selling chemicals, farming tools and seedlings to farmers and employing some youth to help me”.
He sees a bright future for himself and other youth in the community in the cocoa sector, a prospect, he recognises, they will have to work hard to achieve.
“I encourage my fellow youth to stop being lazy and work hard towards their future. We will not achieve much if we wait for our parents and other people to provide us jobs”.
Judita is one of almost 2000 youth from five cocoa regions in Ghana who are graduating from MASO cohort one this November.
