Despite the rainy season, cocoa farmers harvest and dry their beans for the best crop yet

This time of year, this is a typical day in Pante Kera village.

Robert sent me a photo of the only access road, but you would not recognize it as a road.

One of the things I have been advocating for since 2009 is the construction of a good, permeable access road to Simpang Jernih subdistrict, that does not wash out yearly and that retains wildlife crossings. They need about 12 kilometers. Anyone out there want to write a check?

The women are really taking advantage of the new tools that JMD supplied them with, courtesy of the Local Community Fund grant from the Embassy of Finland. Also included in the new harvest methodology were several portable drying racks, which as you can see resulted in far more beans not going to waste. JMD’s Field Officer believes that the women probably realized the biggest quantity of beans ever during this harvest, and the quality is necessarily better due to good pest management and the drying process itself.

One thing that every farmer has on her wish list, though, is a wheelbarrow. A very happy farmer is posing here with one of the 2 wheelbarrows in the entire village. JMD currently has a Razoo campaign to get a wheelbarrow for each of its current beneficiaries; they cost about $45 each. What a lifesaver on 2 acres of cocoa fields!

I do believe that that agency is saving the rainforest, one cocoa farmer at a time.