Agriculture in Cameroon: A way forward

With regards to the challenges in Agriculture, ranging from Post-Harvest management, Quantity versus Quality of Agricultural produce, the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources (SANR) during this 2016 Academic and Entrepreneurial Fair (CCEAF) organized a forum bringing specialist from the different fields in Agriculture to discuss on the theme Organic and Inorganic Agriculture in Cameroon: Sustainability and challenges.

Dr Njukeng Jetro, Senior Research officer from the Institute of Agricultural Research For Development dived into the theme by highlighting that Agriculture employs 70 percent of Cameroon’s workforce providing 42 percent of the GDP and 30 percent of its export revenue.

She went ahead to identify some key differences between organic and Inorganic Agriculture. Dr.Njukeng told the forum organic agriculture is not hazardous as compared to inorganic agriculture mentioning that the uncontrolled use of synthetic inputs poses a health problem for consumers and the environment.

With regards to the economic implication, she said investment inputs is huge with inorganic agriculture which affects yield while with organic agriculture investment input material is low and yield is reliable, of good quality and satisfactory considering an almost no cost in maintaining soil fertility or in her words pH value.

She stated that despite the advantages towards organic agriculture there are some laid down procedures which the farmer must follow for their farm produce to be termed organic.

The General Manager of Mukete Estate Ltd. And Seasoned Agriculturist Mukete Godfrey said irrespective of the system used, the advantages and disadvantages abound, he told the forum it all boils down to procedures used and a focus on sustainability.

Mukete said with crops, organic agriculture in Cameroon is manageable adding that the main challenge is in livestock production: Adding his voice to the discourse the Director of CARITAS of the Diocese of Buea Pierre Ernest said the solution lies in designing a model for Cameroon which will be acceptable by farmers and above all bring income.

Senior year students Besong Elliot and Akum Jude said the forum was very beneficial to them as it helped them engage in meaningful discussions in their areas of interest and research. Edem Selle a Junior said she has come to terms irrespective of what type of agriculture practiced the mindset should be based on sustainability.

At the end of the discussions, the forum concluded that organic agriculture is the future but, however, farmers must take into consideration the laid down protocols for carrying out organic farming while agricultural bodies moderating organic farming must engage in more sensitization.

As a way forward, Mukete Godfrey said, “As a farmer you need to set up a system where there is zero waste in order to reduce the cost of production and be more sustainable”.