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Francis Baah on his family’s farm
Peter DiCampo

Francis Baah didn’t always want to be a farmer. As a little kid growing up in a village outside the small city of Koforidua, Ghana, he watched his father toil in the fields all day to grow corn that his mother bundled to sell at the market. And even after all that hard work, there wasn’t always enough money to send Francis and his four siblings to school.

Francis knew what people thought of farming. When an adult was a farmer, it was because he had been lazy in school. Francis was an excellent student; when his parents were able to afford tuition, he was always at the top of his class. He planned to go to university to get a job as a businessman or lawyer.

But that changed the year Francis turned 16. A teacher at his school was starting a new club called 4-H. It was all about farming, and despite his misgivings, Francis decided to join-he made a point of participating in school clubs. To his surprise, he loved it. The club members learned new farming methods and were introduced to a special kind of corn seed called Pioneer, which would yield a bigger harvest than the seed that local farmers were using. The club leaders even gave them some of the seed for free.

That year there was very little rain, and Francis’ father’s crop was disappointing. But the 4-H club’s corn not only thrived-it was delicious, sweeter than what Francis’ parents grew. The schoolchildren sold it at the local market, and they got to use some of the money for snacks and activities. Club leaders told Francis and his classmates that with these new techniques and seeds it was possible to make a good living as a farmer.