Rice production witnesses a boost

The results that emerged from the development project of rainfed rice cultivation of trays in bimodal rainfall forest area (Proderip) revealed that upland rice has a bright future in Cameroon.

The results were submitted on Friday in Yaoundé, in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (Minader), Essimi Menye, Ambassador of Japan to Cameroon, Tsutomu Arai, and the resident representative of Jica (Japan International cooperation agency).

Through a presentation Mr. Dougdje Mahama, Deputy national coordinator of the Proderip, contextualized the project before presenting the State of the area while giving his perspectives.

Thus, it was reported that the project, in its third year, was able to produce 152 tonnes of seeds including 100 bets available to producers for domestic production of 2,000 to 2,500 tonnes of rice. But, there were difficulties in availability of funding in a timely manner.

In addition, the destructive action of the birds has also influenced cultures. As a result, the frequency of production by country has been reduced to one instead of two as originally planned.

An alarming situation which has furnished the discussions of participants which, apart from the difficulties encountered by the project coordination unit with its implementation, discussed the prospects for optimal development of rice production in Cameroon.

"We intend to strengthen the production of seeds, to make possible not only upland rice, but the rice irrigated this year. We also want to implement a mobile huller to try to serve production basins which do not have processing unit yet", said Dougdje Mahama.

Following his admission among the countries benefiting from the support of the Coalition for the development of rice production in Africa (CARD), Cameroon undertook the elaboration of the national development strategy of rice with the technical and financial support from Jica.

This strategy was designed to increase domestic production to carry 174,000 tonnes in 2010 to around 650,000 tonnes in 2018 and ward off imports, either, approximately 400,000 tonnes per year.

The Proderip was then set up in 2011 with support from Jica with the objectives to increase the number of producers of upland rice in the pilot sites including multiplication and dissemination of quality seeds.

Officials have all expressed their satisfaction with the smooth running of the project while wishing that the maximum is done to achieve production targets.