Christopher Jator Njechu
10 April 2008
Buea — The President of Citizens Association for the Defence of Collective Interests, ACDIC, Bernard Njonga, has warned that Cameroon might soon be losing its food sovereignty if the massive and uncontrolled importation of food is not checked.
He sounded the warning when opening the organisation's general assembly, which held in the Amphitheatre of the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Yaounde recently.
He was speaking following the upsurge in the prices of fuel and basic commodities that led to the February nationwide unrest, a situation he blamed on the failures of government policies. He said such policies deprive Cameroonians of the right to choose what to eat, eat what they produce and to produce what they eat.
"We do not eat what we produce because so many products are imported and consumers have developed a liking for these products, which are available and less expensive," he said.
Instead of reducing costs of farm inputs and stimulating local production, the regime has resorted to increase importation of basic commodities, The Post learned.
Importation of rice now stands at 475,000 tonnes of rice as against 170,000 tonnes in 1996, presenting a net increase of 145 percent. Imported milk is more consumed than local milk. Cameroon now imports about 90,000 tons of milk from Europe. Meanwhile, 1270 tons of onions are imported each year to the value of FCFA 173 million.
According to Njonga, unlike yesteryears when with FCFA 200,000 one could open a tomato farm, today the situation is different. This, he said, does not augur well for a country whose 68 percent of its population depends on agriculture. Currently only less than 50 percent of Cameroon's population depends on agriculture because many youths abandon villages where they do agriculture to cities like Douala and Yaounde.
It is against this that the ACDIC President pleaded for the assembly to reconsider the campaign for the country's dependence on the food it produces. It was highlighted that the campaign for food sovereignty is a follow-up of the campaign against the massive and uncontrolled importation of food, like frozen chicken, which has negative consequences on the economy, on the health of consumers and on the activities of small farmers.
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