85-Year-Old Farmer Found Living Alone in his 'Village', Says his Children Travelled to City for Better Life
- Timothy Mensah, an 85-year-old cocoa farmer lives alone in his small cottage called Akurakese in the Eastern Region of Ghana
- The closest village to his cottage is 15 kilometres away and all his nine children left to seek greener pastures in urban areas more than 40 years ago
- Timothy was once an Agriculture officer with the Cocoa Development Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture
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An 85-year-old Ghanaian cocoa farmer named Timothy Mensah has been discovered in a small cottage called Akurakese after living alone there for over 40 years.
The aged man was encountered by Eva Akpene Agbozo of Agro Women Africa, a not-for-profit organisation working for the transformation of women farmers and rural communities in Ghana.
Eva was in the Eastern Region of Ghana for their Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) project when they bumped into the old man in the isolated cottage.
See Eva's post below:
According to the old man, he decided to stay in his cottage in order to manage his cocoa farm because no one was willing to live in such a condition to take care of the farm.
Because of how remote his cottage is, he has to walk for approximately 15 kilometres to the nearest town to access basic amenities like a market to buy foodstuffs.
There are no vehicles as a means of transport so the only option is to walk and if he gets lucky, he would ride at the back of an extension agent that may visit his farm.
Timothy Mensah said he was born in another village away from his cottage, but moved to the urban communities and worked as an Agriculture officer with the Cocoa Development Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in his youthful days.
Source: UGC
He returned to the village after his parents died, started cocoa farming and was able to educate his children through the business.
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His nine children left for Accra and other urban areas in search of greener pastures leaving him to cater for all his needs.
Currently, the 85-year-old is suffering from short-sightedness and lives without access to electricity nor potable water.
"The path to his cottage is so bad that we fell off the motorbike twice. He works on his 20 acre cocoa by himself", Eva mentions.
At his age, the old man pounds his own fufu and prepares the soup as well.
"Living alone has not been easy, but I don't have a choice," he said.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that a Nigerian woman identified as Arinola Ifeoma Awokoya has shown that sack farming could be a very sustainable way of planting crops.
In a post on Sunday, March 28, the woman said she recently harvested fresh okro that she planted in small cement sacks.
Source: Legit.ng
Joseph Omotayo (HOD Human-Interest) Joseph Omotayo is a journalist who has been writing on human interest topics since 2019. He graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, with a degree in Literature in English in 2016. He is the head of Human Interest and Diaspora Desk at Legit. He once worked for Afridiaspora, OlisaTV & CLR. He is a 2022/2023 Kwame Karikari Fact-Checking fellow. He can be reached via: joseph.omotayo@corp.legit.ng.
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