We can feed ourselves with our own products - Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, MINADER, Lazare Essimi Menye, says Cameroon has the propensity to feed its citizens with its own products, if farmers produce plantain, Cassava and maize on a larger scale.

Minister Essimi Menye made the statement at the Southwest Regional Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, IRAD, Ekona recently, during a working visit to the Centre.

The Minister was in Ekonato assess the strides made so far,following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between MINADER and IRAD on February 11, 2013, for the production of plantain multiplication plantlets.

The MINADER boss expressed satisfaction with the level of work done. According to him, MINADER is not only itchy to start planting the plantlets, but also to meet up with the establishment of its industrial production programme.

This, Programme EssimiMenyereiterated, falls inline with the Head of State’s repeated emphasis on second generation agriculture, with its good and high quality outputs.

Through the mass production of plantain, the Minister said, “we intend to take plantain to our shops by transforming our plantain into by-products such as chips, flour and a new product, which is not really known in Cameroon, frozen plantain. We equally want our plantain not only to be everywhere in Cameroon, but also to be able to compete in the world market,” the Minister stated.

The erstwhile Finance Minister said MINADER intends to break new grounds and produce crops like Irish potatoes.

He however, noted with dismay that Cameroon is the third consumer of wine in the world, but cannot produce even a bottle. “That is why MINADER is designing a programme to start producing fruits and fruit juice by 2020. The World Bank Board has equally approved a 100 million dollar cassava project, that will enable us produce beer, pasta and flour from cassava,” the Minister said.

Earlier in his welcome address, IRAD Regional Chief of Centre, Dr. Kingsley Etchu, thanked Minister Essimi Menye for making available some money in 2013 for the refurbishment ofthree acclimatisation and green houses that are used to nurse the plantain plantlets.

He also thanked the MINADER boss for funding high yielding maize and plantain seedlings, but appealed that this funding should be extended to rubber, oil palm and cassava, which he said, are of high demand in Cameroon today.

He pledged that IRAD will not betray the confidence bestowed on them by MINADER.