Student of HOGENT wins trip to Uganda.
Jennifer Acham, who studies agriculture at HOGENT, is one of the five laureates of the 'Students in a Race to Uganda' competition and wins a trip to Uganda. When this trip will take place is unclear because of the corona crisis, but what is undoubtedly clear is that Jennifer is motivated to make a difference for the local farmers in Uganda, but also in other African and Latin American regions.
‘Students in a race to Uganda’ is an initiative of NGO's ‘Vets without Frontiers’ and ‘Broederlijk Delen’. The participating students in agro- and biotechnology were asked to present a contemporary challenge within the global food system and to offer solutions by means of a poster and a video presentation. Jennifer Acham chose the situation of African cocoa farmers. Africa has no less than 14 million cocoa farmers and 70 percent of the world's cocoa production is located in West Africa.
"One of the most pernicious aspects these farmers face are the low prices they receive for their cocoa beans", says Jennifer, who worked with cocoa farmers in Cameroon, her country of origin, for three years. "As a result, they suffer from hunger for most of the year, are trapped in poverty and are unable to develop their business nor themselves. In order to reduce poverty in these communities and increase their purchasing power, cooperation between North and South is absolutely necessary", she emphasises. In order to improve the well-being of cocoa farmers, she recommends them to work together in cooperatives: "In this way, together they are stronger to counterbalance the powerful purchasers. Now they work too often individually, and by consequence they have a very weak bargaining position".
She also noted that cocoa farmers often have limited knowledge of business management: they have little or no accounting, which means they lack insight into the costs of the whole production process. "In addition, most of them are family-run businesses, in which women and children work. But their labour is usually not included in the pricing, which results in a very distorted picture," Jennifer adds. She also sees a lot of potential for increased efficiency in the agricultural sector. Her presentation for 'Students in a Race to Uganda' can be followed here (from 1h39).
Mother, student, employee
Jennifer, who is about 35 years old, is not just an average student. In Cameroon, where she was born and grew up, she already obtained a bachelor's degree in Geography and worked for three years for the local government in agricultural information. But Jennifer is eager to learn and passionate about agriculture. In 2010 she came to Ghent University with a scholarship from Cameroonian government to follow the English-language master's degree 'Physical Land Resources: Soil Science', which she successfully completed. In the meantime, she had a son, who was struggling with medical problems, so the idea of continuing her studies had to be postponed for a while. In order to survive financially, Jennifer started to work as a cleaning lady. Now her child's health problems are over and she decided to start a bachelor's degree in agriculture at HOGENT. But she still continues to work 15 hours a week, so she’s a mother, student and employee at the same time. Claiming that this is a far from obvious combination, is a serious understatement.
In addition, the Bachelor of Agriculture is a Dutch-language course, Jennifer is English-speaking: "I've had a hard time, but I get a lot of support from HOGENT, and this keeps me motivated.”
Change the system
And indeed, she doesn't lack motivation. Once she get her bachelor’s degree in agriculture, she wants to work in development projects in Africa, but also elsewhere. In doing so, she prefers to stay based in Europe.
She considers the fact that she is an African herself as an important asset: "I grew up there, I know their methods, I know their way of thinking. And that is certainly an added value to change the system."
Because after all, Jennifer wants to strive for nothing less than this steep ambition: to better organise agriculture in developing countries by supporting farmers by sharing expertise and by training them on production processes, better farming techniques and business organisation. More efficient use of agricultural land, fairer prices and less poverty must be the result of this.
In terms of research, she also sees opportunities that have not yet been fully exploited: "There is currently not so much research on food production in tropical regions. Usually the focus is on areas a little further to the north. I'd be happy to look into that as well someday", she concludes enthusiastically.