12% of Cameroonians are undernourished - Henri Ayissi

Cameroon’s effort to curb undernourishment has earned her a top position on the World Hunger Map. The country before 2015 was able to attain the Millennium Development Goal No. 1 that focused on halving starvation.

This earned her certificates of excellence from the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation during the 38 conference of the institution that held in Rome on June 15-22, 2013 and on June 8, 2015.

The country’s performance is reportedly remarkable with figures indicating that the number of Cameroonians suffering from famine have dropped from 4.7 million in the years past to 2.3 million this year. 2014-2016 FAO estimates hold that 795 million people in the world suffer underfeeding shocks, a drop of 216 million from 1990-1992 figures.

At a press conference in Yaounde yesterday October 14, 2014, in prelude to the World Food Day to be observed on October 16, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, disclosed that 12.04 per cent of Cameroonians are underfed, a figure that has witnessed a dropped from the previous years.

In spite of the appreciable performance, efforts are still needed to feed all Cameroonians. Natural and human factors like drought, floods and insecurity are downplaying individual and government efforts.

Parts of the Far North, especially the Logone and Chari, Mayo Tsanaga and Mayo Sava Divisions where family agriculture have been hit by Boko Haram insurgency hinder efforts towards eradicating the hunger scourge, the Minister said.

Notwithstanding, the Head of State’s “Special Food Aid” with the support of local and multilateral partners has paid off. Like Oliver Twist, Henri Eyebe Ayissi sent distress calls to stakeholders on the need to throw their financial weight on family agriculture.

The 2015 World Food Day will hold on the theme; “Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty.” The FAO reports that over the last 20 years, social protection programmes have expanded rapidly in developing countries, reaching out to 2.1 million people thanks to social assistance, social insurance and labour market interventions. Today, only 36 per cent of the world’s popualtion receives some form of protection.

The majority of households that do not benefit from social protection programmes live in rural areas in developing countries. They are susbsistence producers, family farmers or landless agricultural workers who still rely on their own resources and networks to manage livelihood and deal with risks.

The outcome has been the reforming of Cameroon’s social security system, with renumerated and non-renumerated people able to benefit, thanks to the introduction of volontary insurance.