Friday, September 24, 2010

5. BENEFITS FOR VILLAGES

Villagers would benefit from constant contact with university students. Benefits might include:

1. Cultural exposure: villagers make friends, increasing the probability of village children finding educational opportunities overseas.

2. Long-term development independent of the immediate project: just as with the Peace Corps, students in the program make long-lasting friendships that may lead to development opportunities outside the scope of this program.

3. Learning from other cocoa farmers. There is the possibility of finding funding for cocoa farmers to travel to other cocoa study centers. For example, a Ghanaian farmer might spend 2 weeks in Ecuador, learning about eco-tourism possibilities.

4. Developing familiarity with the cocoa value chain: the study centers would help villagers realize that they are not separated from the market. As a result, they would develop a less fatalistic view of their future commercial relationships.

5. Development of commercial relationships with urban centers (i.e., cottage industry.)

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