Agricultural Producers Want Order, Assistance

The call was made during a news conference in Douala on July 7.

Agricultural producers across the country are in need of order and more assistance in the sector. The aggrieved farmers who called a news conference at Marché Sandaga in Douala Sunday announced their plight and desire for technical and financial support from government.

The producers condemn officials of some government ministries who, according to them, continue to play to the defeat of government efforts to promote agriculture in the country. They attribute the closure of the offices of the Cameroon Confederation of Cocoa Producers (FUGICPROCA), in the Sandaga Market last May15 to a plot aimed at destabilising farmers.

It raised discontent with the closure of agricultural support structures like ONCPB, SODERIM, SODEBLE, MIDEVIV, CELLUCAM, CAMSHIP etc and the 6 months of unpaid leave given workers of Société Bananière de Mbanga for reasons of a technical overhaul of factory machines, as well as lack of regular communication between private and public agro companies, and the delay in putting in place of an agricultural bank as announced during the Ebolowa Agricultural Show.

As a result, Lekoukeng Thomas, FUGICPROCA National Delegate, calls for the creation of an umbrella organisation to handle cooperatives, which will serve as a relay and report regularly on its operation and use of funds for cooperative. He expressed the need to create private sector management structures like National Cereal Office, National Coffee Office, National Oilseeds Office, National Office of Banana Cultivation, National Board of Roots and Tubers, National Pineapple Office, etc, while government decisions and actions should be driven to the base by actors with the obligation to prove of accountability within six months.

As a measure to fully revamp agricultural productivity, FUGICPROCA proposed that agronomists should leave their offices in cities and go manage abandoned or closed agricultural stations. With agronomists in offices, farmers are left to themselves to use any techniques. As a result, huge amounts of money by the State meant to promote farming ends at the offices and do not reach the farmer.

Producers noted that agriculture is promoted through personal efforts and at this level it is difficult for the country to attain food self-sufficiency. Food remains undoubtfully expensive and scarce in a fertile land like Cameroon.