[AODA members] CAMEROON: Food self-sufficient in two years?

Sun Apr 27 01:28:48 PDT 2008

Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Group
American Overseas Dietetic Association Members
PermaCulture practioners

I hope that there is someone in Cameroon, or who is able to advise 
Cameroon that reads this e-mail. The plan below looks at using US$201.13 
million to hook farmers into a system of chemical dependency.

The same amount of money could be used to implement sustainable food 
production designs which will improve the country immediately and 
strengthen it more and more in the long run. There are many benefits for 
using sustainable food production designs, such as to:
* naturally enhance the soil for high production immediately and improve 
even more over time;
* reduce the amount of tillage needed by increasing organic matter 
within the soil and using perennial species;
* strengthen the natural environment (water, plants, air, etc.)
* multiply diverse seed supplies;
* design the landscape with the appropriate species for that location, 
making more land productive, not just 'fields';
* increase the level of nutrients yielded immediately and improve even 
more over time;
* strengthen local economies by avoiding the purchase of chemicals and 
fuel based equipment; and
* re-connect with nature for a calming effect on the humans, animals and 
plants that are living there.

I hope that there are some other Perma-Culture designers that read this 
and that are in the position of working with Cameroon to help them 
re-think their plans to create a healthy, strong and sustainable country.

Stacia

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa English reports, 4/25/2008
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:11:41 -0000
From: IRIN <no-reply at IRINnews.org>
To: Stacia Nordin, RD <nordin at eomw.net>

Http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=77931

CAMEROON: Food self-sufficient in two years?

Photo: David Hecht/IRIN
Farmer in southern Cameroon
YAOUNDE, 25 April 2008 (IRIN) - Local production of basic foods in 
Cameroon will double in the next two years if an emergency programme 
announced by the government on 24 April achieves its goals.

“My hope is that the current crisis created by high world food prices 
would end up having a positive impact for Cameroon by forcing us to 
become an agriculture-based economy,” said Rabelais Yankam Njomou, an 
advisor on agriculture to the Cameroon government.

Cameroon, which depends heavily on oil revenues for its national income, 
uses less than 20 percent of its fertile land and imports many of the 
foods it has the capacity to produce, he said.

Most local farmers can’t afford modern farming, which is what the 
programme would address, Njomou said. “Currently farmers can’t afford 
fertiliser which have almost doubled in price in the last year because 
it is a petroleum by-product and fuel prices are high,”� he said.

The programme would subsidise fertiliser by between 40 and 50 percent 
and also create free seed banks, he said. “All the framers will have to 
do is come and get the seeds.”

Photo: David Hecht/IRIN
Rabelais Yankam Njomou, an advisor on agriculture to the Cameroon government
Rabelais Yankam Njomou, an advisor on agriculture to the Cameroon 
governmentThe cost of tractors would be subsidised by 15 percent and the 
government would start handing out four to five hectares of fertile land 
to any farmer who can show that he or she is capable of using the land 
productively.

The plan has its sceptics. Hozier Nana Chimi, associate secretary 
general for the Cameroonian agricultural non-governmental organisation 
(NGO) Service d’Appui aux Initiatives Locales de Development told IRIN: 
“It looks great on paper but in the past we have seen so many good ideas 
fail because of bad governance and corruption.”

So far the government has only committed 7 billion CFA francs (US$1.73 
million) to the programme. The government’s current total budget for 
agriculture is around 40 billion CFA francs [US$99.33 million].

“That is hardly enough to pay all the civil servants working in the 
ministry,” an economist who consults for the World Bank, Georges 
Tchokokam, told IRIN.

The government would have to more than double that to 81 billion CFA 
francs (US$201.13 million) for the plan to work, Njomou said.

If the government were to invest more, Cameroon’s agricultural potential 
could be greater than in any country in Africa, Tchokokam said, noting 
that Cameroon is one of just a handful of places in sub-Saharan Africa 
where large amounts of wheat can be grown.

“Cameroon could not only become self-sufficient but a major food 
exporter,” he said.

Photo: David Hecht/IRIN
Hozier Nana Chimi, associate secretary general for the Cameroonian 
agricultural non-governmental organisation (NGO) Service d’Appui aux 
Initiatives Locales de Development
Other areas are well suited for rice although Cameroon currently 
produces only 60 tons a year while importing 400 tonnes. “With 
skyrocketing rice prices as Asian rice producers cut exports we now have 
a huge incentive to produce it locally,” Njomou said.

The main obstacle is that farm techniques are inefficient. “Traditional 
farmers spend all their time farming less than a hectare of land. With 
modern techniques farmers could increase production on the same amount 
of land by 70 percent and do it quicker so they could cultivate larger 
tracts of land.”

For Nana Chimi from the agricultural NGO, farmers in the United States 
and Europe are subsidised by their government so |why shouldn’t poor 
farmers in Africa get a helping hand” he asked. “The problem is that the 
government has traditionally misused such programmes and kept farmers 
out of the decision making processes,” he said.

Government adviser Njomou refused to characterise the plan as a subsidy. 
“I wouldn’t say we will be subsidising our farmers because that would 
sound like we are against free trade so I will call it “price support”, 
he said, though he admits that it amounts to the same thing.

rk/dh

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