Cocoa production in Cameroon's savanna zone is expected to receive an added boost as from July this year following the introduction of a new project by the Forest Development Support Agency (Agence Nationale d'Appui au Développement Forestier), ANFOR. The project which sets out to step up production and improve the revenue of growers in the region was presented recently in Yaounde to experts during the first ever Cameroon Forest Day.

"In order to reduce the rate of deforestation caused by cocoa growers to extend their plantations, we will, as from July this year, launch a new project which consists in planting cocoa together with other tree crops in the savanna zone in Mbam", Hortense Ngono, ANAFOR technical team member, said in her presentation. The Mbam Division, the pioneer region to host the project has humid characteristics made possible by its transitional position between the forest and savanna zones of Cameroon. "The humid nature of the region greatly favours the growing of cocoa plants", Ngono told participants. The project, she said, will greatly help in the fight against poverty by enabling farmers to grow a multiplicity of crops at a time and on the same farm. "Besides cocoa trees, farmers will be supplied with high yielding nurseries of avocado, plume, oil palm, coconut etc", she said

The new project, she said, has a duration of 30 years and will benefit 3,217 cocoa growers all belonging to 16 different farmers' unions. "ANAFOR will help farmers acquire land, train them on Mixed farming techniques and enable them to open plantations on over 1,700 hectares of land", she said. The first phase of the project ends in 2011 and the total cost is estimated at 2,154,000 Euros, about CFA 13 Billion.

ANAFOR was created in 2002 and has as mission to provide financial avenues and technical assistance for the implementation of Cameroon's forest development programme.