A FCFA 1.5 billion Agropole programme to produce 26,000 tons on 325 hectares was launched Monday October 14, 2013.
All things being equal, pineapple producers in Awae, Mefou and Afamba Division of the Centre Region, will in the next farming season witness an improvement in their activities in both production, processing and commercialisation.
The Minister Delegate in the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Yaouba Abdoulaye, on Monday October 14 launched an Agropole programme in the locality. Objective, move production from the current 12,000 metric tons per farming season on 150 hectares of land to 26,000 metric tons on 325 hectares of land per farming season which spans through 14 months.
The FCFA 1.5 billion financing with FCFA 966.7 million to come from promoters and FCFA 504.36 from the State, is also expected to enhance local processing of 14,000 metric tons of pineapple into juice for the local and world markets. The processing will be enhanced by a plant whose foundation stone was also laid in the Messa neigbourhood at Awae within the sidelines of the programme's launch.
According to the main promoter of the programme, Jean Baptiste Kouam, the processing plant will help them migrate from manual processing. "Upon completion in 2014, the processing plant will have an average processing capacity of five metric tons per day and we promise to have the first pineapple juice from this plant in eight months," the promoter said. But already, pineapple produced in the area is treated, parceled in cartons, stored at 10 to 12 degree Celsius with trade mark, "Ananas du Cameroun" and exported within and without Africa. He noted that the programme currently recruits about 150 youth of the locality and the number could increase when activities intensify. In a random sampling of opinion, inhabitants of the subdivision said pineapple remains their mainstay and with the Agropole programme, there is hope for better days ahead. They said it will curb rural exodus and help the population to better make ends meet.
Addressing the population, Minister Yaouba Abdoulaye said government is unwavering in standing by the population for a better living, reason why the Agropole programme was created by a Prime Ministerial decree of August 6, 2012 to boost national strategies in developing the agro-pastoral sector. Government on the spot handed over to the producers a tractor, engine saws to fall trees in the yet-to-be areas, generators, fertilizer and insecticides et al to boost the activity.
