3.5 billion FCFA to boost agricultural sector

Cameroon and Germany formalized the creation of a center of green food processing innovations with funding of 5 million Euros, equivalent to FCFA 3.2 billion (US $ 6.5 million ), on Tuesday in Yaoundé.

This was with the aim of increasing productivity and transforming the agricultural sector to enhance its contribution to the national economy.

Based in Yaoundé at the German International Cooperation Agency (GiZ) and under the coordination of Andrea Wilhelmi-Some, this mechanism is one of those opened in a total of 12 African countries and India, for a total funding of 81 million Euros (about FCFA 52.6 billion, or $ 105.3 million).

It is a component of the Special Initiative "one world without hunger" operated by the German Federal Ministry of Cooperation and Development, for a contribution to reducing poverty and hunger worldwide. The objective is the promotion of technological innovations to promote the modernization and professionalization of the agricultural and rural sector.

These innovations can be summarized by promoting mechanization, provision of improved seeds, fertilizers or cold chains, development of contract farming around the processing units, the establishment of specialized companies, cooperation between research institutions and producers, advisory support, initial and ongoing training on new agricultural businesses and access to credit.

According to the German Ambassador in Cameroon, Holger Mahnicke, despite high potential agro-pastoral, "Cameroon is still a net importer of food."

Three production sectors targeted by the project are potato, cocoa, and poultry. An extension is planned for mangoes, and a two-year extension of the implementation period of the planned project from 2015 to 2017 in parts of the Southwest, Northwest, and Adamawa, and increase in the funding allocated, in the opinion of the coordinator.

Among the expected results were improving smallholder incomes, job creation with occupancy of 20% for young and 35% for women, and especially the development of value chains to allow improving the marketing of products.

For the Cameroonian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, this initiative is a contribution for the implementation of the National Strategy for development of the rural sector, which is reflected in the September launching of the National Plan Agricultural Investment (NIPA) related to the implementation of the detailed Program for the Development of Agriculture in Africa (CAADP), decided by the African Union (AU).

Since this is the only one in Central Africa, "the implications of this center will be beneficial both in Cameroon and neighboring countries," he was added.

Other beneficiaries are African countries like Ethiopia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Zambia, Togo, and Tunisia.