Climate Change: Fruit plants, trees under pressure

The threats manifest through droughts with direct impact being a drop in production.

 The Village Concertation Committee, fondly known as CVC, is a gathering of 25 men and women in the villages of Nlong, Kellé, Nkolguet, Ekountek, Bingongok and Ebaba I in the Nyong and Kellé, Lekie and Mefou and Akono Divisions of the Centre Region. Activities of the group focus on agriculture and livestock and since its inception in 2005, CVC has transformed lives.

This notwithstanding, activities of the association have in the past years faced threats from Climate Change. Persistent sunshine, says Louis Marie Atangana, President of CVC, is not helping matters. He explained that fruit plants and tubers like cassava and plantain, amongst many, do not produce well when exposed to excessive sunshine. He said two thirds of the over 3,000 to 5,000 plants they produce annually are exposed to Climate Change effects. The direct result is a drop in production and in income, notes Louis Marie Atangana. The Committee’s  demonstration plots and nurseries boast of grafted  and  marcotted food crops and fruit plants like Cocoa, Njangsang, kolanuts, avocado, corrossol, plum, orange and mango. The group has opted for measures to limit the effects. They have decided not to clear virgin forests for agricultural and commercial, housing or firewood use without replanting them. Restoring barren land with agrofestry activities is paying off, though still facing shocks. They have also resorted to land plowing with focus on growing trees on farms as part of soil fertility. The trash that is cleared is used as compost manure, a form of fertilizer the committee cherishes more, stressed Louis Marie Atangana.

Yields in many areas are diminishing and the World Agrofestry Centre has set in with its wealth of experience to improve livelihoods and reverse the climate change trend. In an Open Day on November 19, 2015 at its regional office in Bastos, Yaounde, research results and achievements on participatory tree domestication unravelled techniques that are helping farmers to plant high-yield value indigenous fruit trees, reducing rural poverty and re-shocking carbon in the environment. A visit to a group of farmers in Nkenlikok, a village situated 35 km from Yaounde on the Douala highway, brought to the fore climate issues like desertification, climate change, poverty alleviation, food security and healthy ecosystems. The Regional Director, West and Central Africa of the World Agroforestry Centre, Zac Tchoundjeu, rejoiced at the transformation of the village, recalling how it moved from a small nursery to a large demonstration plot for fruits and perenial trees and changing lives to suit their theme of “Agroforestry and the Future We Want.” Grafting, marcotting and rooting of cuttings are some of the techniques farmers around the country have been introduced to, to improve yields, livelihoods and artenuate Climate Change.