Success Story: Ensuring a Future in Cocoa Farming
Mr. Joseph Pièrre Modo is a 50 year old cocoa farmer who lives in the village of Mbakomo. The son of a teacher and a princess of the Ekouda chieftancy, he has had an interesting career. As a child, his family moved frequently due to the requirements of his father’s position in the civil service.
After high school, he intended to follow in his father’s footsteps and completed his teacher training in 1971. After teaching for several years, he had the opportunity to live in France where he earned a degree in insurance.
He returned to Cameroon in 1989, and worked as a senior staff member at an insurance company. After nearly 10 years with the company, he lost his job and was forced to return to his village.
“I kept asking myself ‘what am I going to do?’ I realized that courage alone was no longer sufficient, it was necessary to be involved in an activity,” he recalls. At that time, his parents had established a farm in the village and suggested that he pursue farming as well. He visited the Agriculture Services office in his village and received some technical sheets on the cultivation of annual crops such as cassava, banana and plantain.
In June 2003, his father died suddenly just as a Farmer Field School was beginning in the village. When Mr. Modo inherited his father’s 10 hectare cocoa farm, he recognized the importance of learning to maintain and improve the farm and decided to enroll in the Farmer Field School.
Without the training, he does not think he would have been fully prepared to manage his father’s cocoa farm.
“The establishment of such a school is very necessary because it helps participants to know about all the various tools required to cultivate effectively and at the same time it helps farmers to modernize their cocoa cultivation practices as a whole,” he says.
Mr. Modo continues, “The most difficult aspect is the rigorous application of the lessons taught on the cocoa farm. With determination burning in me, I shall be in a position to put into practice the methods and techniques learnt from our excellent resource person.”
After facing many challenges in his life, Mr. Modo believes that the training he received from the STCP Farmer Field School has given him the skills he needs to succeed.