In collaboration with the Slow Food Côte d’Ivoire Community

Some encounters change the course of a life. For Kouamé Bassa Jeannot, a young agricultural technician from Divo, it was an awareness-raising caravan across West Africa that revolutionized his view of agriculture. That journey, dedicated to protecting the land, biodiversity, and food sovereignty, took him to Mali, The Gambia, and Senegal.

Along the way, he discovered a truth that left a deep impression on him: feeding people should never mean putting their health or the environment at risk.

“When I returned to Divo, I couldn’t go on as before,” he says. The images, stories, and lessons from the caravan continued to resonate within him. While many would have gone back to their old lives, Jeannot decided to take action. His first impulse was to reach out to those who supply the local markets every day: vegetable farmers.

Notebook in hand, he visited the farms, observed, talked, and listened—without judging anyone. In just a few months, he raised awareness among more than sixty farmers individually. One day, he caught a farmer spraying insecticide on lettuce that was about to be harvested. Instead of scolding him, he asked, “Imagine if your brother ate this salad tonight and got sick. Would you know that you were the one who made him sick?”

The silence that followed spoke louder than any technical demonstration: farming also means protecting.

But Jeannot knows that words aren’t enough. To truly convince others, he must demonstrate that a different kind of agriculture is possible. So he decides to start his own agroecological farm. His older brother provides him with a plot of land. Jeannot installs a solar-powered pump and begins his first attempts at organic farming.

The first few months are extremely tough: without chemical pesticides, the crops become vulnerable and losses mount. Snails, crickets, and harmful insects devastate several plantations. Eggplants, tomatoes, lettuce… nothing is spared. Many would have seen these failures as proof that agroecology doesn’t work. Jeannot, however, viewed them as a learning phase.

He experiments with natural solutions, refines his methods, and learns to work with nature’s balances rather than against them.

Gradually, the results start to show. Harvests become more consistent, and quality improves. Today, he grows lettuce that he and his family eat, without any concerns for their health. For him, that’s already a victory.

His efforts are beginning to attract attention beyond Divo: a simple social media post allowed him to connect with Mme Djédji Célestine, coordinator of Slow Food Côte d’Ivoire. Impressed by his approach, she encouraged him to organize his efforts and involve more young people in agroecology. Jeannot thus brought together several young people who share the same values and launched a collective effort to promote organic vegetables.

Together, they demonstrate that healthy agriculture can also be a real economic opportunity.

For him, the struggle goes far beyond agriculture. It’s about the quality of life for communities. “When people eat healthy, they live better. Good nutrition is the foundation of everything,” he says. In Divo, Jeannot’s lettuce has become the symbol of a greater commitment: protecting consumers, preserving the soil, and passing on a more sustainable form of agriculture to future generations.

What began as a simple caravan has become a life’s mission: cultivating hope, one head of lettuce at a time. A commitment that is growing, strengthening, and continuing to take root in the community.