"When I started working when I inherited the field from my uncle, it was really not easy,” she says. “Even the family and the community in which I lived looked after me because a woman cannot master the challenge at any time.” Today, Assata even leads the ECAM cooperative with 2,300 producers as chairwoman and actively advocates for the women in their industry. “We have shown that we can make it to women. So I feel happy,” she sums up. Many will have tried the cocoa from Assatas Plantage before: their cocoa beans are in Fairtrade chocolate.

Agriculture in times of climate change

Assata started in 2003, when she inherited a field from her uncle. Since then, she has been growing cocoa and is an employer for several workers who harvest the valuable cocoa beans with machetes on the plantation every day. Let's ask Assata about her biggest challenge: “Having a very good production on a very small area”. Assata is working on agroforestry, which is a sustainable cultivation method that enables small farmers such as Assata to grow other products in addition to cocoa on a small cultivation area.

Agroforestry is becoming increasingly important in times of climate change. Many Fairtrade producers in countries of the global south continue to develop in this cultivation method to increase the food security of families and prevent further deforestation.

Without a doubt, climate change and the associated changes for people and the environment is the biggest challenge in agriculture. Assata also reports on how people in Cote d’Ivoire are already suffering from the consequences of climate change. “In early 2017, we had a large drought on our plantations, where we lost almost half of our production". The difficulties refer to cocoa cultivation, but also to the cultivation of vegetables, which serves for their own diet. “We are forced to buy expensive food in the shops in the city,” Assata reports.

The price of a good life as a cocoa producer

One of the most important topics for cocoa producers such as Assata is the cocoa price. This is being negotiated on the commodity exchanges of the world market – far from the people who toiled on the plantations for the cocoa tea. Due to the large price fluctuations and the associated risk of poverty in the fields, the two most important countries of cocoa production, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, have introduced a minimum price. This is redefined twice a year. “We are grateful for all the efforts the government has, and we want to accompany it so that the income remains stable,” says Assata.

If the price set by the government is below the Fairtrade minimum price, Fairtrade pays the producers the difference. However, more must happen to make a good life possible for the producers and workers in the cocoa industry. Currently, only around one third of cocoa harvests from Fairtrade cooperatives are also sold under Fairtrade conditions. The rest of their harvest must sell the remainder of their harvest at a lower price through the conventional market. To change this, the demand for Fairtrade chocolate must continue to grow.

Fairtrade premium enables joint projects

What More Assata Doumbia would do? “We need to improve our way of working. We have been working with machetes, dabas and similar devices for a long time. We would like to have devices that make our hard work easier,” she says.

The Fairtrade premium has already been able to invest Assata in favour of the Community. With the money, the community has built schools among other schools and improved roads to facilitate the routes to the plantation.