A Special Guest Blog by Jude

FEAR NOT. SUSTAINABILITY OF ORGANIC COFFEE FARMING IN OKU-CAMEROON IS GUARANTEE.

When Kevin B. announced his replacement in Mocha Joe’s Organic Growers, farmers and other fans of the company thought their future will be bleak.

Who is your replacement?

Is he up to the task?

Has the program come to an end?

What about the improved standard of living I’m enjoying since the inception of this program?

These were some of the questions posed by the beneficiaries of the program. He is gone and I have come.

My name is Jude, a male Cameroonian from Nkambe, N.W. region. I am the ‘Obscure’ replacement for Kevin, outgoing Director of Organic Certification for Mocha Joe’s organic growers. Since January 1^st 2014, I have been working in Oku with Kevin in the ongoing program. My mission is to foster and support sustainable increases in the productivity of organic coffee within the overall objective of the program (to ensure that coffee produce by Mocha Joe’s organic growers in Oku is 100% organic). In serving this mission, I will therefore concentrate on integrating and/or implementing organic farming policies, monitoring and evaluating  farmers activities, building their capacities on nutrient control and management, record keeping, encourage the transfer of skills and propose more cost effective management strategies to achieve workable solutions to farmers problems. In addition, I will create a longitudinal data to foster research on organic coffee farming in this community, write reports, and guarantee a balance between organic coffee production, the environment, and the sustainable growth of the company, amongst others.

Living and working in Oku with local farmers is great, there is always something to do and you have a good connection to the people, thus giving me the opportunity to share my sound theoretical and practical knowledge and experiences with farmers as well as learning from them.

Before being recruited into the company, I managed a family organic farm. I am therefore optimistic that I will improve my skills and those of farmers in this domain. Thanks to the team of well experienced staff I work with, I have also learned a lot, most especially about the inner processes and the work of a big company which is very important to me. Thanks to my encounter with Mr. Philip, Cameroon’s Director, and Mr. Pierre Capy, Director and Owner of Mocha Joe’s company Ltd.

Since I am here, I can see a lot of progress in and around the community with respect to the ongoing program. For example, over 50 coffee farmers who received training were certified as organic producers in my presence during the 1^st ever general meeting held in this community and more than 150 other farmers are anxious to validate their training program in order to be certified. This shows me the great potentials in this program and the due achievements of my predecessor Kevin B and the entire crew, as well as the task ahead of me.

Will he achieve the task?

I guess this question is running through your mind. Never mind…time will tell.

Generally speaking, life with ruralites (local farmers) is often not very easy. However, the program offers a good opportunity to live and work with people who have similar problems and give them solutions to their problems as well as instilling self-confidence and the ability to solve their problems independently.

My visits to some organic farms have shown that many of them are doing very well in the program (e.g. managing their farms organically). Indeed, it is good to see the success of the program and it motivates me to continue my work.

I believe in the vision, mission, goals and objectives of the better management of every institution (company) and the proper functioning of its resources for the benefit of humanity and also working to create a better society free from environmental glitches. With time, we can achieve all those goals and more.