First name: Hadja Ballou

 Last name: FOFANA

 Country: Guinea

 Responsibilities: Farmer and representative of the farmer-based organization COOPAGRI.

 A professional lawyer, Hadja Fofana initially worked in the public sector as Director General of Civil Rights in the Guinean Ministry of Interior, before resigning in order to start a security services company with her husband.
 
Seeking to diversify her experience and contribute to the social and economic development of her hometown, she set up in 2000 Fabik Farm. The farm covers an area of 72 hectares in Kondoyah (in the prefecture of Kindia), South East Guinea. The farm’s activities consist of: the production of palm kernel grains, the processing of red palm oil, pineapple production, banana production and cattle and sheep breeding.

For the last three years, Ms. Fofana has been contributing to the revival of banana production in
Guinea through her collaboration with the Agronomical Research Institute of Foulaya. She has been involved with two research projects to determine which of the latest technological developments are most effective in the cultivation of eleven varieties of banana and plantain trees.

To encourage farmers in her region to become economically independent, Ms. Fofana founded in 2006 the Kondoya Agricultural Cooperative (‘COOPAGRI Kondoyah’ - ‘Coopérative Agricole de Kondoyah’). Since its inception, she has enabled approximately twenty small-scale producers to start banana and pineapple production by providing them with tillers and agricultural materials (e.g. seeds and fertilizer) with a 0% loan.

In addition to her farming activities, Ms. Fofana founded The ‘Association for the Agro-pastoral Development of Kindia’ (‘ADAKI’ - ‘Association pour le Développement Agropastorale de Kindia’). ADAKI’s principal activity is to raise young people’s awareness about their rights and responsibilities through a variety of activities including: assistance with the processing of marriage and birth certificates, the provision of legal advice on land contracts, improvement of literacy skills, and the provision of advocacy services. She also promotes the use of post-harvest machines.

Ms. Fofana is also actively involved in a variety of food security and crop cultivation programmes in the region such as: the World Bank financed Emergency Food Security Programme (rice and corn production); the Fruit and Vegetable Project (‘PROFEL’ - ‘Projet Fruits et Légumes dans les régions de Mamou et Kindia’) and the Food Security through Commercialization of Agriculture (FSCA) programme.

During her ten years of experience in the rural world, Ms. Fofana has achieved considerable success in agricultural development. These achievements and her proximity to the reality of the agricultural world and its people mean that she is a valuable and important development stakeholder.