Lukong Pius Nyuylime
12 May 2008
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One of the principal the first challenge for Cameroon is to produce more food. Yes, more food to feed its people at the time demand is fast outweighing supply and foreign partners on whom the country had hitherto depended are declaring their intension to stop exporting food.
This state of affairs has kept no one indifferent especially as it is a global phenomenon and one with very dangerous ramifications. The good thing is that government has been able to quickly understand the need to act and act fast; though this could be hampered by deep seated inertia when it comes to implementing the lofty decisions towards food production.
Emergency Programme
The groundwork for the emergency plan to increase production was led on April 24 during the Cabinet meeting. One of the decisions that came out of the meeting was the setting up of a special revival and assistance fund for the financing of the programme. That has not been done but from every indication, it should be up soon. According to the Prime Minister, Ephraim Inoni, government will be using the prevailing food crisis in the world as an opportunity to profoundly transform the country's agriculture to meet domestic demand and make the country a real exporter of food stuff.
The emergency programme as presented by the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Rural development (MINADER), Jean Nkuete, consists in developing the strategic agricultural sectors during the 2008 farming season. The programme which in essence, is the readjustment of the Rural development Strategy Document drawn up in 2005 by MINADER, is split up into three implementation phases: short, medium and long terms. The short term implementation, according to Jean Nkuete, consists in reinforcing support to the development of strategic sectors. This entails modernising existing production units and creating new ones. It equally has to do with assisting youths in their localities.
In the medium and long term, the programme will lead to the creation of medium sized and large scale agro-enterprises. Based on the research results and the availability of land, government is envisaging the following supplementary production: 800,000 tons of maize in 2010 and 100,000 tons in 2012 against 576,000 tons awaited in 2008; 1,300,000 tons of cassava in 2010 and 1,800,000 tons in 2012 against 1,037,000 tons in 2008; 41,000 tons of palm oil in 2010 and 60,000 tons in 2012 against 30,000 tons in 2008; 1,080,000 tons of banana/plantain in 2010 and 1,404,000 tons in 2012 against 810,000 tons in 2008; 98,000 tons of rice in 2010 and 140,000 tons in 2012 against 63,000 tons in 2008 and 160,000 tons of Irish potatoes in 2010 and 200,000 tons in 2012 against 115,000 tons in 2008.
Agricultural Research
The Institute of Agricultural Research and Development (IRAD) has already produced a variety of improved seedlings to be distributed to farmers for planting in 2008. in a recent interview with Cameroon Tribune, the Director of the Institute, Simon Zok said, IRAD has developed a short and medium term programme to supply high yielding seedlings to farmers to increase, in a sustainable manner, food production in the country. The programme is being executed within the framework of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. IRAD, the Director said, will be putting at the disposal of farmers 22 tons of maize seedlings, 5 tons of rice seedlings, 2.2 million cassava stems, 3 tons of sorghum seedlings, and 900,000 germinated seeds for oil palm. The institution has also envisaged a considerable increase in seed production ahead of the 2009 agricultural season. "To satisfy increasing demand, IRAD envisages to produce 300 tons of maize seeds to be cultivated on 15,000 hectares of land, 600 tons of seeds for Irish potatoes, 3,580,000 cassava stems, 860,000 young banana/plantain stems and 100,000 fruit plants among others for the 2009 agricultural season", he said.
In spite of the ambitious programme announced both by MINADER and IRAD, there are fears that time is running out. The sharing needs to be done now or the seeds are left to perish, for they can no longer be useful one year after.
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