Farmers in the Southwest Region have been warned to shun the habit of misappropriating farm inputs from Government and international donors for family or greedy interest.
Southwest Delegate of Agriculture and Rural Development, James Enang, issued the warning in Kumba recently, while overseeing the handing over of equipment to the Konye Farmers Cooperative, KONAFCOOP, worth FCFA 10 millions.
The equipment is a donation from the international Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, in collaboration with the Netherlands Development Organisation, SNV, to step up the income of cocoa farmers, sustain production through intensive farming and diversification.
Enang cautioned the beneficiaries to invest the donations in the best ways available to increase the quantity and quality of cocoa produced in the Region.
Speaking on behalf of Judith Van Eijnatten, Country Representative of SNV Cameroon, Charles Tah stated that the package given to the farmers constituted 10 new motorcycles, 10 wheelbarrows, 10 humid metres, improved plantain seedlings and cassava cuttings.
Tah disclosed that the project nurtured under a partnership between SNV and IITA was necessitated by the falling standards of cocoa production as a result of aging farms and climate change.
The programme, Tah stated, falls within sustainable cocoa production, fight against climate change, cooperative development, linking the farmers to a suitable market and the next generation of cocoa farming.
Appreciating support from MINADER, the SNV official corroborated the regional delegate in suing for an indiscriminate use of the equipment and farm inputs put at the dispersal of farmers.
Representing Hana Rachid of IITA Cameroon, Martin Yemefack, explained that the project is under implementation in two places across the country, namely; Konye in the Southwest and Ayos in the Centre Region.
Edward Eyabu Elangwe of KONAFCOOP appreciated the IITA/SNV donation, but urged the donors to equally invest resources in the domain of training the farmers in the modern systems of farming. Eyabu cited the absence of data on the actual sizes of the farms of the over 375-members KOONAFCOOP as a shortfall.
Corroborating Bau Akama Makia Ndedi, Second Deputy Mayor of Konye who raised the issue of bad roads, Eyabu decried the deplorable roads that hinder the sales of their farm produce.
Makia regretted that the ceremony that had earlier been scheduled for Konye was staged in Kumba because the roads leading to Konye have remained impassable in the last five months.
The prime goal of the project is to support the Government of Cameroon in designing a suitable land use and cocoa agro forestry system in Cameroon.
Konye has been chosen as a pilot site for the project in the Southwest.
