FCFA 7.4 Billion for Cocoa Production

The government of Cameroon and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) have reached an agreement for the take off of a five-year cocoa output enhancement project code-named, "Africa Cocoa Initiative." The Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, and the Chief Party of the WCF African Cocoa Initiative, Hope Sona Ebai, signed the accord last Friday July 20 in a dual ceremony that also saw the launch of the multinational project.

The World Cocoa Foundation project placed under the theme, "Public-private partnership towards increased productivity, incomes and food security in West and Central Africa," involves Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast and is funded by the Sustainable Trade Initiative, World Cocoa Foundation, US AIDS and the Cocoa and Coffee Inter-professional Board (ONCC) to the tune of 13.8 million dollars (about FCFA 7.4 billion).

According to the Chief Party of the WCF African Cocoa Initiative, the project is about catapulting Cameroon's cocoa sector into efficiency. "We are trying to move away from making decisions either from government level that are not based on evidence or that do not implicate the private sector. The public-private sector partnership is very important because there are a lot of untapped resources, either financial or technological that if we don't bring them into the playing field, we would never get that input. Government cannot finance all the developments in the cocoa sector, so we need to pull in resources from the various sectors to help make the policies workable," Hope Sona Ebai said.

The project consists in sampling seed gardens (genetic finger printing) so as to see where seedlings are coming from to fit in the various cocoa seed varieties. The best ones will constitute the new seed gardens that farmers will use. It also involves ensuring a responsible use of agro-chemicals and improved post-harvest techniques. "We want to increase productivity to averagely one tonne per hectare in five years," Mr Ebai noted.

Like the US Ambassador to Cameroon, Robert P. Jackson, Trade Minister described the WCF initiative as timely given the place cocoa production and sale occupy in the national economy, especially as it is one of the main export produce here.