2nd edition of Agric exhibition launched in Dschang

The agricultural sector is one of the main levers of growth acceleration with strong contribution to economic growth in proportions of (20 to 30% of GDP), employment (80% of rural employment are agricultural), trade (more than 55% of non-oil export revenues), development of services (transport, insurance, trade and Bank) and the main supplier of raw materials to industry.

It is for this purpose that actors of the rural world met to further consolidate the innovations on Tuesday in Dschang, in Menoua, Western region Department.

For five days, over 5,000 visitors will visit the exhibition to patronize products presented by the 200 exhibitors. This exhibition was organized under the theme, "Agriculture for emergence - what prioritizes the development of the pastoral sectors in Cameroon".

According to the Cameroonian Office of Fairs and Exhibitions (Ocafex), the event organizer, the main innovation of this year will be the launch of the platform multi-stakeholder reflections and new perspectives for the emergence of agriculture as they realized that actors, programmes and developed strategies lack synergy. As a result, there were duplications of actions and additional costs which inadvertently led to a low impact.

"The platform seeks to gather the actors of the chain of values of agricultural producers, processors, traders, producers of services, banks, insurance, research institutes, etc.) to think about the emergence of agriculture, determine priorities, allocate roles and responsibilities and identify or specify the mechanisms of monitoring and evaluation", said a member of the local organizing Committee.

Another innovation was the agricultural competition. Here, it focused on two aspects; the livestock (best local species of chickens, goats and rabbits in terms of productivity) and the artisanal processing of agricultural products.

The goal is to discover the genetic diversity of animals of Cameroon, publicize their production capacity and serve as a framework for promotion and popularization of genetic potential.

Several scientific papers will take place with that of the economic interest group (GIE) of the University of Dschang on biogas (production of energy from agricultural waste).