Good-bye green grocers!

Sawidago is a beautiful village covered with fertile land. Located 600 meters above sea level, Sawidago used to be known as the vegetable producer for its nearest towns in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia like Poso, Palu, and Banggai.

However, the Poso riots which happened more than 10 years ago changed everything. Villagers started to abandon their plantations.

After that, vegetables were difficult to get. Most of villagers had to buy vegetables from green grocers who sold their items around the village.

Jemes Perori, 24, is aware of the vegetable-crisis faced by his village.

The young man, who was a member of a child group many years ago, is interested in farming and agriculture knowledge.

In 2012, Wahana Visi Indonesia, a partner of World Vision in Poso, sent Jemes to join farming trainings in Salatiga for 3 months. Motivated by his interest in farming, Jemes then continued his education in Mojokerto's farming school in East Java.

Back in his village, Jemes shared the agriculture knowledge he learned with his friends who were school drop-outs, Jitro, 25, and Nober, 23. The three men worked hard to restore Sawidago to it's previous vegetable producing glory.

Jemes and his friends discussed their plan with community leaders, who welcomed Jemes's plans. Sawidago is ready to be a great vegetable producer again.

Since 2013, together with 25 families, they have been working 2 hectares of vegetable plantation. Twice a week, farmers sell 150 packages of organic vegetables to the nearby towns. Now, vegetables are the main livelihood for Sawidago villagers. The most important thing is that now there are no more green grocers who sell vegetables in their village.

Good bye green grocers!

*Written by Eko Hariono, Area Development Program Manager, Wahana Visi Indonesia at Poso operational office