Agriculture, the engine of Cameroonian development

Landlocked production areas, difficult access to inputs, lack of funding, are some of the difficulties the sector undergoes despite its potential.

The sector of agriculture in Cameroon has important potential among which are agricultural land, a hydraulic network, irrigable land and abundant human resources, a stock and a high diversity of forest and wildlife resources as well as a certain dynamism of rural populations grouped into cooperatives and GIC.

The last news in the sector applies precisely to these groups of peasants.

It's the imminent start of the activities of the project of investment and development of agricultural markets (Pidma).

A financing agreement which was signed a few days ago, between the Ministry of economy, planning and land use (Minepat) and the World Bank in presence of Essimi Menye, Minister of Agriculture and rural development (Minader).

The funding in question, an amount of 50 billion will be used to boost productivity and support the transformation of maize, cassava and sorghum, in order to direct them toward commercialization and industrialization.

Industrialization, indeed, is much talked about in the agricultural sector, these last years in Cameroon. But for Minader, the first pillar of the agriculture of second generation is the men and women trained in all occupations, including those of agriculture.

Therefore, we must create agricultural schools. The second pillar is research because it allows to isolate the high-yielding seeds. Moreover, stressed the Minister, "it is impossible to use tractors when there is no seed. It should be ensured that there is the seed first and foremost, "he said.

Bluntly, Essimi Menye indicated that another pillar of agricultural development in Cameroon, is the opening up of the areas of production, in other words, roads, without which the farmers will not be able to route their productions to places of mass consumption.

Despite all these handicaps in the growth of agriculture, Cameroon managed to meet the target deadline of the N ° 1 Millennium development goal (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger).

What earned him a degree of excellence awarded by the Director-general of the United Nations Organization for food and Agriculture (FAO) in June 2013. It is said that agriculture actually feeds the Cameroonian population. It only remains that it boosted the overall development of the country, with industrial units of processing of products Made in Cameroon.