Minister prohibits civil servants from running cooperatives

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, (MINADER), Lazare Essimi Menye sounded the verbal ban in Kumba while launching the distribution of pesticides to farmers of the South West Farmers cooperative Union SOWEFCU.

The ban which is aimed at both retired and active state employees is in order to put an end to exploitation and manipulation of farmers by these civil servants.

The Minister believed that cooperatives have endured bad management in the hands of some civil servants who take up management positions in these institutions without any knowledge.

Essimi Menye also disclosed that the government has strengthened the training of agricultural technicians and cooperative managers through exchanges with schools in Ouagadougou Bukina Faso so that farmers will benefit from contemporary knowledge on cocoa and other cash crop farming.

He also revealed government’s plan in splitting the cooperatives into specialized divisions of particular crops. With this, there will be the cocoa -coffee sector, the cassava, plantain and fruits sector.

It is expected that with this innovations, Cameroon will be expected by 2020 to be exporting juice in large quantities. The ceremony ended with the distribution of fungicides and spraying equipments.