Cameroon: Planting Season - Famers Advised to Wait

They have been urged to wait for the rains to properly commence.

It is a tradition in Cameroon that farmers usually start planting in March, hopefully around the 15 when the planting rains are expected. With the coming of the rains most farmers in the littoral region are tempted to start planting. As the days go by, farmers get confused as a result of the unstable climatic condition. Agricultural technician at the regional delegation of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Littoral region has advised farmers to hold on and wait for rains proper before planting. While talking to CT the Regional Coordinator for the National Project for the Development of Fruit Tree (PNDCF), Amigum Denis Larois, said it is high time farmers worked with the changing climatic conditions. He advised farmers to wait for rains before they can start planting, to him the farmers should be flexible as the climate changes. He added that the present rains are tricky as such it would be nice to observe the weather. It is a fact that the rainy season stretched from mid-March to mid-November, which allows the growing of crops. The first crop is grown between March and July, while the second crop is from August to December, he said. He added that as at now the soil is still dry and if farmers plant in such a condition their seeds will die off before the rains proper. To him, the Littoral region is famous in growing, cassava, maize, vegetables of different categories, fruits of different kinds, yams, plantains, egusi, tomatoes and a lot more. Meanwhile Anegue Zontsop Therese, agricultural technician at the regional delegation advised farmers to always visit the nearest agricultural post for advised on how to go about planting. She revealed that farmers are mostly faced with lack of seeds in quality and quantity, wrong use of pesticides and insecticides, lack of storage facilities just to name a few. Despite all these, Amigum Denis Larois said government has put in place different programmes to ameliorate the situation. He said most often the government always supply farm inputs to farmers.

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