9,573
edits
Changes
→Issouf - an independent cocoa farmer in the Sambirano Valley
Issouf lives with his family in New Antanambao, a small village in the Sambirano Valley, about 47km south of Ambanja. As a boy he learned everything about cocoa 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 cocoa 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 cocoa 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 cocoa grow: criolloCriollo, forastero Forastero and trinitarioTrinitario.
<!--Issouf is president of the ADAPS cooperation in the Antanambao region. The Association pour le Dévelopment de l'Agriculture et du Paysannat du Sambirano (Association for the Development of Agriculture and the Peasantry of the Sambirano) buys dry beans from independent farmers for a fixed, fair price. As all members of ADAPS, Issouf has to farm and process the cocoa after strict regulations to ensure a good quality cocoa.-->