DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Ending Famine Depends on Farm Reform

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sylvestre Tetchiada

YAOUNDE , Apr 13 2004 (IPS) - Food shortage has hit Cameroon, prompting agricultural experts to devise a plan to overhaul the country’s farming system.

This is not the first time that Cameroon, which enjoys abundant rainfall, is facing food shortages. In Aug. 1991, the country received its first donation of 2,600 metric tonnes of food from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

Cameroon produces around 5.68 million tonnes of food per year. In 2003 this yield declined by 1.3 percent and in 2002 it recorded a downfall of 1.7 percent.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) 2003 Report on Human Development in Cameroon said 75 percent of the country’s rural population lives below the poverty line of one dollar a day. According to the report, 59 percent of Cameroonians, including those in rural areas, live in poverty.

“Agriculture has been in crisis since the end of the 1980s. It has impoverished rural people and caused food insecurity in the south of the country,” says Bernadette Nzocke, president of the Peasants and Breeders of Cameroon, a non-governmental organisation (ngo).

Roland Mboa, an official at the ministry of agriculture, has called on Cameroonians to close their ranks and fight hunger. “Our minister (of agriculture) wants to begin talks to find long-term solutions with the farmers,” he told IPS.

The minister of agriculture, Augustin Federic Kodock said the government intends to “modernise” the country’s agricultural sector to ensure food security.

“We want to put the fate of small farmers at the centre of this political debate,” Kodock said. “We want to transform our agriculture into a dynamic and productive sector capable of improving the standard of living of our people, and strengthening our food security.”

But civil society and ngos are sceptical that the minister’s policy will ever be implemented.

“There are so many obstacles to the rapid transformation of agriculture: the intransigence of the farmers themselves, the lack of investment in rural areas, the limited access to water, the deterioration of the environment, the pressures of foreign financial institutions to accelerate economic policies and unfavorable conditions for our agricultural exports,” said Bruno Abena of the Small Farmer’s Agriculture, Food, and Globalisation Network.

“In addition to the poor climatic conditions, transportation problems, storage problems, the lack of infrastructure and political corruption, you’ve got the bulk of problems Cameroonian farmers must endure,” he added.

Cameroonians have always had difficultly eking out a living from the land. According to Kodock, very simple methods have been employed on the small patches of land for years. Most farmers are happy to use simple manual tools and practically no fertilisers or other soil additives.

“Although 50 percent of Cameroon’s population makes its living from agriculture, which represents 20 percent of the gross domestic product, the sector only receives eight percent of total state investment. This means it will be easy to modernise,” said Alain Kounga, president of the Association of Development Promoters, an ngo.

In 2003, the number of people employed in the agricultural sectors was estimated at 3.6 million, out of a population of 15.8 million. “What we’re concerned with today is developing sustainable agriculture,” explained Claude Temgoua, an engineer with the ministry of agriculture.

“The development of sustainable agriculture is a necessity. It is based on concrete achievements, such as cultivating crops among the trees in the southern provinces to prevent further encroachment of the desert,” he said.

Another challenge of modernising agriculture in Cameroon is how to make it as natural as possible, an idea which is beginning to take hold. “It’s a way to create more sustainable agriculture and more equitable trade. It’s a way to get a better remuneration for farm products and export crops,” Brigitte Ondobo, a member of the Small Farmer Federation of Cameroon told IPS.

Thanks to the FAO and the African Development Bank (ADB), Cameroon became, in 2003, one of 86 low-income countries which receive support from the Special Food Security Programme. Cameroon’s major problems continue to be the fight against poverty and food insecurity, as well as efforts to “transform peasants into farmers”.

“The underdeveloped and underfertilised agriculture practiced in Cameroon needs to be modernised so that subsistence farmers are brought within the earshot of both national and international markets,” said Nestor Mbang, an economist based in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.

During an evaluation meeting of the Special Food Security Programm last month (March), Kodock denounced the “tyranny of the monoculture” practiced in the northern provinces, those most often plagued by famine.

“In the short term, there will be a lot of money spent to promote agricultural diversification. Just like in the south, we plan to launch a cloud-inducing project to create frequent rains,” he said.

“We will never abandon the countryside; agriculture and breeding are our main developmental priorities,” Kodock added.