Re: Agriculture minister instructs CDC to innovate

I am very worried about the instructions of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Lazare Esimi Menye, to C D C Management during his recent visit to the Corporation to install the new Board Chairman.

I have read with a lot of dismay the medicine he prescribed to cure the CDC of its recent negative economic indicators or performance.

The Minister is an aristocrat. His simplistic solution to the complex CDC financial situation, no doubt, is therapy from a public administrator. The Minister’s instructions were cure from a seasoned politician.

However, the CDC as its initial mission demands, has to be managed as a commercial enterprise, make profit and pay taxes, and create employment.

Therefore, it has to be run using sound scientific management techniques and not random arts practiced by politicians. The right doses of medicine should come from a consortium of “DOCTORS” in agricultural management.

Administrators normally do not analyse problems the way managers do. Managers in the process of managing get things done not only effectively but efficiently through and with other people within time limit set.

Administrators give commands and instructions and wait for the outcome that may take years to come and by that time, they may not be there.

In the 1990’s there was clamour for privatisation. The CDC was advised to limit its activities to perhaps a single crop (monoculture). The privatisation was proposed to affect even the factories, the engineering, the medical etc which were to be privatizsed as separate entities. As a result, the tea sector was the first to go into thin air. Today, the tea market is flourishing.

Clearly, tea was sold on political assumptions. The fact that the unit of CDC without the lucrative tea survived for 20 years is proof of the non-scientific nature of political decisions.

I am tempted to deduce that persons in authority in this nation quite often never look before they leap. They have no time to diagnose problems that deserve equitable solutions.

If the CDC as at now is producing very negative output from the cultivation of rubber, oil palms and banana which are plantation crops, how will the results look like when they include new operations with cassava, fruit trees and production of biscuits?

Plantation crops such as rubber, oil palms and to some extend banana are permanent crops. Their cultivation is a proof of an advance stage of agricultural production. These crops are grown for cash and they help the nation in its foreign exchange or balance of trade payments.

Plantation agriculture provides local industries with adequate raw materials. They also represent a good investment and give a high return. In addition, they are less labour- demanding than food crops cultivation (annuals). All over the world- Indonesia, Malaysia, India and even in Cameroon- HeveaCam, SAFACAM, SOCAPALM, FIRM SWISS, etc, they that are in permanent crop cultivation are most prosperous.

The investments required for the cultivation of permanent crops are spread through the years and the variations in crop yield are generally small. This premise holds so well with rubber cultivation. Once these permanent crops are planted and established, harvesting may be daily for many years.

For the annuals which are principally, food crops such as cassava, corn etc, they provide the bulk of the intake of the population. Financial rewards for the cultivation of annuals are not as high as compared to those from plantation crops. Therefore, the down-turn in the economic fortunes of the CDC now are not caused by the fact that the CDC is cultivating only rubber, oil palms and banana or that diversification to annuals will change the situation.

In addition, I also disagree with the Minister on the following medicine prescribed to CDC management as a remedy to her illness.

That diversification to annual crops and to other areas so that every Cameroonian can get a “pinch” of the CDC is an inaccurate presumption.

The outright criticism of the Minister that the Corporation is cultivating rubber and banana where most of the prices are fixed by somebody else is misleading. If the Minister is correct, we should not exploit the oil sector, nor the timber. In which export commodity do we determine the price? Prices are fixed by the market place and not some individuals. We operate in the global market place.

That CDC management tools are old is not true. There are more services workers than field workers in the Corporation now than in any time in its history. The general charges therefore are very high and consequently, consuming any profit from crop production.

That there should be recruitment of engineers and technicians is another farce. We should be recommending the recruitment and training of more productive field workers and not white-collar workers.

The Minister’s assertion or allegation that there is another crop more profitable than rubber is false.

The rubber plant is often referred to as “white gold”. In one of my projects proposals to his predecessors, titled “Natural Rubber Nursery Project for Stallholder’s Plantation Development for Cameroon” in 2007, I referred to the rubber plant as a “cash cow”. This translates that, any investment in cultivating rubber is solid and is compared to creating a bank account with a good cash flow.

In the years 2000-2009, a kilogramme of dry rubber in the world market sold for 1,250 fcfa. In 2010 to early 2013, a kilogramme sold for about 3,000 fcfa. I want to know from the Minister which crop in his prescription to revamp the CDC can fetch more money to the CDC other than my honest prescription for a well-managed Corporation with rubber as the “cash cow”?

In addition to my humble prescription to revamp the CDC, I want to include the following remedy to be administered to this patient:-

Firstly, CDC Management should be allowed a free-hand in managing the Corporation. We have observed that as at moment in the Corporation, there is staff and labour surplus to requirement resulting from the fact that top political administrators are using the CDC as dumping ground for their relatives and children.

Such mercenaries, in less than a year or two become managers. These are the quirk and quacks ruining the show in the Corporation nowadays. What results do you expect from such managers? One certain former General Manager of the CDC stated that, it takes him not less than 16 years to construct a field manager. Promotions to positions in the CDC should not be tribalized or be by favour but must be by merit.

We advise that current CDC Management should review its present system of management of labour and material resources. They should re-introduce the policies of the 1985 to 1991’s (The Musonge Era) which rescued the CDC from its economic crisis when a kilogramme of dry rubber sold for 250 fcfa.

The CDC should apply standard norms in her management. The Malaysian Experiences which are well documented in various Planters’ Bulletins are very vital in all CDC plantation operations.

CDC Management should seek expert advice when and where necessary. Luckily, there are a lot of retired managers who are DOCTORS in crop production by their own right around that can help.

Training of staff is an indispensable tool in the global world. Exchange visits by staff to similar organisations either here in Cameroon or abroad are a must. In those days, a CDC staff that was valued to have certain competencies levels made exchange visits to Malaysia or Nigeria.

The General Manager of the CDC should continue to be top executive; that man with the four competencies- planning, organising, leading and controlling. He must have the responsibility to solving problems, making decisions, helping others and providing resources as his primary responsibilities.

We like to remind Top Management that supervisors are like top management but are middle level managers. They should be regarded as part of the organisation’s management team because they are unique in the fact that they oversee the work of operative employees. If and when CDC Management understands that the supervisor is the key person, production and productivity in the rubber, oil palms and banana plantations will improve.

Finally, to crown the way forward, the CDC should have a simple goal; to make profit. The Corporation should be profit-driven before any other motive. CDC should only fulfill its social responsibilities and in this manner the company will stay afloat.

The government has systematically, been converting invaluable CDC agricultural land into the hands of individuals and driving CDC more and more into remote areas where labour is hard to find; where agricultural products have no roads for easy evacuation to markets. This also kills the ability of the Corporation.

CDC Management should continue to act ethically i.e. act in principles that define right and wrong conduct. People who lack a strong moral character are more likely to do the wrong things if they are not constrained by rules, policies, job descriptions, or strong cultural norms that frown at such behaviours.

Conversely, very moral people can be corrupted by an organisation and its culture that permit or encourage unethical practices.

By Nkwen–Tamo Ernest

(Retired CDC Field Manager)