Nkeze Mbonwoh
24 July 2008
The South West Province played a vanguard role in the birth of cooperative societies in the late 1970s. In 1979 their umbrella Cooperative, the South West Farmers Cooperative Organization (SOWEFCO) was formed affiliating some 12 major primary societies covering all of what is today the six administrative divisions of the Province.
The South West Provincial Chief of Service for Cooperatives and Common Initiative Groups, Vesoh Pius Ndong, counts 7,085 registered rural organizations (CIGs and Cooperatives alike) in the Province. Vesoh Ndong affirms that only 15 percent of the 354 registered cooperatives actually function on the field. The cooperatives cover the agricultural, fisheries and many other economic and social domains.
In the late 1980s SOWEFCO was booming at its apex. All of the 35,000 tons of cocoa and a similar quantity of coffee from the Province was marketed by SOWEFCO. Employment in cooperative management was common. Farmers redoubled their efforts. Hardly did any child stay away from school for lack of fees or books. The talk of economic crisis was unheard of.
Then came the 1992 laws liberalizing the economic sector. The hitherto subsidized agricultural sector through cooperatives began to experience a subvention draught. All was now left in the hands of the fittest. Individuals started buying cocoa at their persuaded prices. The farmers could not master their economic system whereby they should individually afford chemicals and fertilizers to keep their farms. The centre started giving way for things to fall apart. Many had to abandon their farms due to the drop in produce prices and poor farm maintenance. That is when the new era of hardship set in.
The diagnosis of the nose-drive fall cooperative movements can, however, bring to focus three major ailments: poor management, liberalization whereby the State disengaged its direct support and the drastic fall of produce prices in the competitive market. When this reporter recently visited the multi-million SOWEFCO edifice in Kumba, it all inspired pity. Many workers have been redundant or simply put on technical leave for lack of funds to keep an impressive work force. In the good old days of cooperative flowering, court cases were a common phenomenon. Reason: mismanagement amid other egoistic interests. But that alone could not pull down the strong rooted system that was blossoming in the eyes of everyone. The main cause of cooperative collapse could be found in the disengagement of the State. The State provided not only funds but the technical follow-up and control. An illustrative example was the supply of chemicals and fertilizers to keep the farms. Farmers were very much encouraged by that system and production was greatly improved.
Far away locations like Menji - Lebialem with FOFCO and the Manyu Farmers' Cooperative are almost enclave and have difficulties transporting chemicals when needed. Compared to the present situation of anarchy the farmers often dream of the good old days with nolstalgia.
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