Training the next generation

The cocoa revival in Sulawesi is exemplified by the jump in students studying cocoa cultivation and management at the Agricultural Technical School, Bone Bone, Sulawesi. The number of first-year enrolments in cocoa studies has risen from 25 to 110 in three years.

The school works closely with extension staff from Mars. Students have established almost 12,000 trees, which have become a source of superior genotypes for wider distribution.

Student Adi Cahyo says he decided to study agriculture because it offers a rewarding career and cocoa promises economic security. His classmate Alfina says she is studying agriculture and cocoa management so she can contribute to the improvement of her family’s farm. The family switched from corn to cocoa two years ago, believing it now offers better options.

Students such as Adi and Alfina see farming and agriculture as careers, not just as the continuation of a family tradition. They have been shown that their landholdings, as small as they are, can be more productive, more diverse and capable of providing sustainable incomes as well as staple foods.