In the early days of our farmer mobilization work, we met Mary-Ann, a resilient widow living alone and fully dependent on her maize farm. Her quiet strength was evident, but so was the weight of the challenges she faced.
Like many vulnerable smallholder farmers, Mary-Ann was forced into a heartbreaking routine. Because she couldn’t afford to hire labourers during harvest season, she had no way to bring in all her maize on her own.
This lack of labour pushed her into a desperate corner: she had to sell her maize to middlemen while it was still standing on the farm. The middlemen paid her a very low price upfront because the maize was unharvested. Once they paid, the maize effectively belonged to them. Mary-Ann then used this small amount of money to hire labourers to harvest and transport the maize to her home, where she cleaned and prepared it for the buyers to return and collect.
This meant that:
- She sold at the lowest price because the maize was still on the farm.
- She took on the cost of labour and transport herself.
And in the end, her profit margin was almost nothing.
The need for immediate cash trapped her in a cycle where she could never truly gain from her own harvest. But that changed when CornHouse stepped in.
We provided Mary-Ann with a pre-harvest loan, enabling her to hire labourers on time and harvest her maize without being exploited. Today, she is safely storing her maize with CornHouse, positioning her to sell at competitive market prices—not the low, unfair rates dictated by middlemen.
For the first time in years, Mary-Ann will fully benefit from the fruits of her own labour.
This is the kind of transformation CornHouse is committed to bringing to rural smallholder farmers across Cameroon. Our model empowers farmers to store their maize safely, access fair financing, and sell at profitable prices—restoring dignity, stability, and hope.
Mary-Ann’s story is just one of many. And with your support, we can reach even more farmers who simply need a fair chance.
Stand with CornHouse. Together, let’s uplift Cameroonian rural farmers.