Meet Rebecca, a young cocoa farmer ready to teach others

MASO works through Community Facilitators to build the capacity of young people interested in either training as cocoa farmers or entrepreneurs in various cocoa growing communities. The facilitators are trained to assist in mobilizing the youth in their communities for training either in the MASO Agro Academy or Business Academy.

One such facilitator is Rebecca Danquah, a 30-year cocoa farmer from Jerusalem, a farming community near Kasapin in the Asunafo North District of the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. Rebecca is a Senior Secondary School graduate and currently a full-time farmer. She owns a three-acre cocoa farm and also cultivates vegetables such as tomatoes, pepper and garden eggs to diversify her income.

Rebecca is one of 110 facilitators recruited and trained by the MASO programme to build the capacity of the youth in their communities. She currently works with youth aged between 17 – 25, providing them with basic skills needed to venture into cocoa farming as a career. She is confident the training received from Solidaridad and her own knowledge in cocoa farming will impact her role as a Community Facilitator.

I was working on my cocoa farm based on knowledge acquired from my family but now, I am a different cocoa farmer. I am using the lessons from the training on my own farm, in addition to training the young farmers in my community”.

She is optimistic when youth find career options in cocoa farming in their communities; it will go a long way to reduce rural-urban migration and help them build a future for themelves”.

“I will like to encourage the youth, to look for land to cultivate cocoa. Through cocoa farming, you can secure your future; the beans can harvest for over twenty years. Additionally, you are guaranteed a fixed priced for your beans every year”.

Photo caption: Rebecca Danquah at The MasterCard Foundation’s second Young Africa Works Summit in Kigali, Rwanda in February.