Government, IFAD Evaluate Roots/Tubers Programme

A workshop to assess the impact of the just-ended eight-year programme held on September 20, 2013.

Stakeholders of a just-ended "National Roots and Tubers Development Programme" jointly funded by the government of Cameroon and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) say after eight years of field work, there is much to show both in terms of research, productivity and profitability of the crop. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Essimi Menye, on September 20 chaired a workshop in Yaounde to evaluate the performance of the programme.

Its Achievements

The activity report presented to stakeholders last Friday indicates that in eight years, the programme has improved the performance of cassava varieties through their adoption and diffusion in 18,000 households, 62.5 per cent of which were women. The programme also organised farmers into associations, notably the putting in place of 250 cassava farmers associations which later migrated into cooperatives in eight regions of the country. Production also moved from the hitherto 8-10 metric tons per hectare to 25-30 tons per hectare at term. This moved annual national production from two million tons in 2002 to 3.9 million tons in 2011.

The report says the performance goes beyond the initial projection. Initially, the programme was to cover 6,000 villages but hitches forced stakeholders to bring it down to 250. Again, cassava, yam and Irish Potatoes were to be taken care of but at term, only cassava emerged. According to IFAD's Project's Coordinator, Bernard Hien, some 130 km of roads were also rehabilitated in the rural areas to open up the production basins to the market. Speakers at the ceremony said the improvement in productivity, coupled with the multiple uses of cassava byproducts, many families are able to make ends meet. The programme that took off in 2004 was envisaged to consume about FCFA 15.17 billion with FCFA 9.18 billion in form of loan from IFAD and the rest by the Cameroon government.

Consolidating Achievements

Minister Essimi Menye said before the completion of the programme in March 2013, government had designed another one in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to promote the development and promotion of roots, tubers and plantains. "Cassava has a long list of byproducts that are needed in the market and there are people willing to produce more. The construction of a milling plant is about being completed in Sangmelima to produce starch that will be used by companies. This shows how cassava can give a kicker to a lot of other activities," he said. In addition, government and IFAD are also developing a FCFA 23 billion programme on youth entrepreneurship in the agro-pastoral sector. Records show that since 1981, IFAD has funded nine projects and programmes in Cameroon to the tune of 301.1 million dollars (about FCFA 146 billion).