AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Farming has an unglamorous image across Africa. But this might be changing - the BBC's Sophie Ikenye met some young professionals who packed in their office jobs and moved back to the family farm.
Six years ago Emmanuel Koranteng, 33, gave up his job as an accountant in America and bought a one-way ticket to Ghana. He now has a successful business growing pineapples in a village near the capital, Accra. He says that even when he was far away from the farm, it was always in his thoughts.
Across the continent, Dimakatso Nono, 34, also left her job in finance to return to the family farm in South Africa. She left her lucrative job five years ago and moved from Johannesburg to manage her father’s 2,000 acre farm outside the Free State Province.
“I knew that if I came to assist my father, I would be able to actually make meaningful change,” Nono says. “At the beginning, we were not sure about what the animals were doing and where they were in the fields, so for me it was important to ensure that every single day, every activity that we do is recorded.”
Life on the farm has not been easy
This year’s drought across Southern Africa put an end to her apple, maize and sunflower crops. But Nono says she does not regret moving away from the corporate world. “I’m not always on top of the world but on such days I appreciate the fact that if I need to rest or recuperate, there’s no better place than here where you have the nature to support you.”
Across the continent, Dimakatso Nono, 34, also left her job in finance to return to the family farm in South Africa. She left her lucrative job five years ago and moved from Johannesburg to manage her father’s 2,000 acre farm outside the Free State Province.
“I knew that if I came to assist my father, I would be able to actually make meaningful change,” Nono says. “At the beginning, we were not sure about what the animals were doing and where they were in the fields, so for me it was important to ensure that every single day, every activity that we do is recorded.”
Life on the farm has not been easy
This year’s drought across Southern Africa put an end to her apple, maize and sunflower crops. But Nono says she does not regret moving away from the corporate world. “I’m not always on top of the world but on such days I appreciate the fact that if I need to rest or recuperate, there’s no better place than here where you have the nature to support you.”
