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Issouf lives with his family in [[New Antanambao_(Masoala)|Antanambao]], a small village in the [[Sambirano Valley]], about 47km south of [[Ambanja]]. As a boy he learned everything about cacao farming from his father, who had a plantation behind the village just next to the [[Ambahatra]] river. A big flood in 2004 and 2005 devastated about 600ha of cacao farmland in the area, including his father's plantation. Heavy rainfall caused erosion and washed sand from the mountains into the valley. The otherwise good, fertile soil was covered by sand and is since then unusable for farming purposes.
In 2009 Issouf created a new plantation further away from the village. Beside already existing older cacao trees he planted new trees in the shade of fruit trees next to coffee shrubs, banana trees and vanilla. On his plantation all three types of cacao grow: Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario.
