CDC exposes troubles to Agriculture Minister

The General Manager of the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, Frankline Ngoni Njie, and his collaborators have laid bare the problems plaguing the corporation to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Henri Ayebe Ayissi.

“Money is needed for us to rehabilitate our farms in order for us to be productive,” the CDC GM told the Minister who was on his maiden visit to the CDC recently.

The Minister visited the Ndongo Banana Expansion farm at Likomba in Tiko, the Tiko Rubber Factory and the oil palm nursery at Bota, Limbe.

The CDC GM told Henri Ayissi that inadequate funds is just one of the major headaches that corporations faces such as aging plantations which lead to low yields and consequently low financial turnover.

While at Ndongo Banana farm, the Group Rubber Manager, Johnson Ndumbe, told the Minister that it was in 2009 when CDC took the decision to expand the production of banana.

Their drive, he said, was in response to Government’s demands that banana production in Cameroon be stepped up from 205,000 tons a year to 400,000.

CDC then broke up from Del Monte, expand its farms and scale up the banana output to about 200,000 tons a year; thus, the launching of the MAKOSSA and SAWA Banana projects.

But Ndumbe said CDC’s determination to meet up with Government’s request for an increase in banana production has been hampered by draw backs like irregularelectricity supply.

The CDC depends on the national electricity grid topump waterto irrigate its farms during the dry season.

Ndumbe said the European markets demand that the bananas they export meet all quality specifications and standards. And whenever there is a shortage of water to keep the plants alive, they suffer from huge losses due to poor quality banana yields.

As a way out, they told the Minister that CDC has decided to start a ripening process where some of the bananas would be sold locally in super markets and other business outlets in Cameroon.

In response, the Minister expressed satisfaction at what he had witnessed. He said CDC had the necessary capacity for growth and expansion.

“My first appraisal is that CDC has the capacity to implement the new Government’s policy of a second generation agricultural policy in Cameroon,” Ayissi said.

Ayissi said for CDC to progress, there will be need to collaborate with other agricultural entities such as the Ekona Research Centre for a synergy of action.

Secondly, CDC and the agricultural sector as a whole need trained personnel if the policy of a more mechanized agricultural option has to succeed.

It is hoped that the new Minister will brandish the magic wand to bail CDC and the entire agricultural sector in the country from the myriad of problems stalling growth in the sector.