Cocoa farmers seek help for crop to reach target

Cameroon's government will need to increase assistance provided to farmers to reach a production target of 600,000 metric tons of cocoa annually, an official with the largest cocoa farmers' association said Friday.

Stakeholders in the West African nation's cocoa sector agreed with the government in 2010 to provide 600,000 tons of cocoa beans annually by 2020. To accomplish that, the government and industries have been offering farmers pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and sprayers.

"We're calling on the government to emulate the Ghanaian example--provide inputs to cocoa farmers by at least five-fold yearly--then we can start thinking of attaining that target," James Lobe Musima, the vice president of the 700,000-member Cameroon Association of Cocoa and Coffee Producers, told Dow Jones Newswires.

After slipping to nearly 200,000-ton annual harvests, Cameroon's cocoa output hit 240,000 tons in the just-ended 2013-14 cocoa season, repeating the 2009-10 season's output.

The high cocoa production was aided by good weather and extra government support with inputs to farmers, government officials and farmers said.

"But the present support with inputs is largely inadequate to boost cocoa production, because inflow of inputs from government is trickling at a snail's pace, which means we can't meet that 2020 target of 600,000 tons," said Mr. Musima.