Some 350 agro-pastoral producers in the Centre Region have received government aid in the form of farm equipment worth some FCFA 20 million to boost yield and step up the country's food self-sufficiency efforts. The equipment comprised among others, wheelbarrows, rain boats, watering canes, cutlasses and insecticides.
This was during the pre-feast mini agro-pastoral show at the courtyard of the Yaounde Omnisport Stadium last Saturday December 22. Speaking during the event that pulled crowds of buyers who bought at cheaper rates for the just-ended Christmas feast, the Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Clementine Ananga Messina, said the show which is almost becoming national, was meant to facilitate access of the population to agro-pastoral products at affordable prices during end-of-year festivities. Given that government transported and lodged the agro-pastoral producers, the used the show to sell what they produce and as such, were able too to make ends meet during the festive period.
The Yaounde exhibition gave the agro-pastoral producers from the ten Divisions of the Centre Region the opportunity to feed the Yaounde populace with quality plantains, coco yams, yams, sweet potatoes and fowls among others. Visitors who thronged the market went home with bags, baskets or even car-load of assorted foodstuffs for the feast.
