Cameroon Exported 14,205 Tons Of Banana In June 2019

In June 2019, Cameroon exported 14,205 tons of banana, the banana association Assobacam indicates. Compared with the 16,979 tons exported in June 2018, this represents a drop of more than 2,700 tons.

During the period under review, PHP, subsidiary of French group Compagnie fruitière de Marseille, exported 13,021 tons while Boh Plantations exported 1,184 tons. Due to security and financial challenges amid the Anglophone regions’ separatist crisis, CDC is still absent from the register of banana exporters in Cameroon.


Business in Cameroon

Cameroon's 2014/15 cocoa production up 10% over 2013/14

Cameroon's 2014/15 cocoa production increased to 232,530 tonnes compared with 209,905 tonnes the previous season, National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB) data released on August 6 showed.

Cocoa bean exports from the world's sixth biggest grower rose to 198,129 tonnes by the end of the season on July 15, an increase of 23,500 tonnes or nearly 12 percent from 2013/14 levels, according to the marketing board's statement.

The NCCB did not give a comparative total figure for 2013/14 exports. The board announced exports of 158,000 tonnes at the end of last season. The statement released on Thursday, which marked the start of the 2015/16 season, did not explain the discrepancy.

The Netherlands was the top destination for exports, receiving over 73 percent of Cameroon's beans, the data showed, followed by Belgium at just over 8 percent and Indonesia at nearly 8 percent.

Meanwhile Cameroon processed 32,143 tonnes of cocoa domestically during the 2014/15 season, the NCCB said. Industrial grinders Sic-Cacaos, a subsidiary of Swiss chocolate manufacturing firm Barry Callebaut, and CHOCOCAM, an affiliate of South Africa's Tiger Brands accounted for 32,112 tonnes. The remaining 31 tonnes were processed by artisanal units. That compares with a total of 32,804 tonnes processed in 2013/14, according to figures announced by the NCCB at the end of that season.

In March, Cameroon announced plans to double its cocoa processing capacity to about 30 percent of its total production, or nearly 70,000 tonnes of beans per year, by adding 10 new processing units.


The nation's cocoa season runs from August to July. The main harvest is from October to January/February, followed by a light crop harvest period from April/May to June/July.

Reuters

Cameroon's Ndanifor Permaculture Eco-village in the news

Mostly away from the limelight, there are innumerable efforts by locals all over Africa to address the perennial issues of dealing with issues of declining soil fertility, yield losses due to climate change, poorly accessible and expensive farming inputs and many others that plague small scale farmers.

Permaculture is one such ideology/group of methodologies. Spoken of passionately by its practitioners as part of 'sustainable agriculture' particularly suited to small scale and resource-poor farmers, it is pooh-poohed by others as unrealistic romanticism by opponents of 'modern' agriculture.

 Ndanifor Permaculture Eco-village in Cameroon has been featured in an article by IPS. While the article delves a little into the motivations behind the founder's efforts, it is unfortunately very short of specifics about actual farming practises, lessons learned and challenges faced, or results. The photo used to illustrate the article shows little to give one the impression that the no doubt well-intentioned initiative is yet doing or achieving much. Perhaps it's early days for the effort.

 The website of the mother organisation, Better World Cameroon, is unfortunately not any more forthcoming on actual work going on, although there are pitches for donations of various resources and materials.

African Agriculture

Film maker shocked by Cameroon banana plantation work conditions

A British film maker is shocked and disturbed to find pregnant women among Cameroonian workers exposed to toxic chemicals in the handling of bananas for export to the UK.

Jan Nimmo said, “The women were unfolding blue bags which are used to protect bananas from pests. The bags are coated with a chemical called chlorpyrifos which can cause numbness, weight loss, birth defects, loss of libido, respiratory problems and suicidal thoughts. The most pressing issue is a lack of stewardship of the agrochemicals they use and a lack of understanding of what they can do to people exposed to them.”

The workers are said to be paid £2.25 (US$3.60) per day for work shifts as long as 12 hours, which helps European consumers to enjoy low-priced bananas.

Among other plantation work conditions that shocked the film-maker were toilets with no water and no clean drinking water.

The government-linked Cameroon Development Corporation runs several banana plantations, whose produce is sold to companies like fruit multinational Del Monte for distribution to Europe, North America and elsewhere.

full article...Daily Record

Cameroon 2011/12 cocoa harvest was 210,034 tonnes

That was a little lower than the record 240,000 tonnes of 2010/11.

Companies from The Netherlands bought 180,075 tonnes, or 70%, of this year’s exports. Germany was the distant second biggest importer of Cameroonian cocoa, buying 7% of the total quantity exported.

More…

Herakles' palm oil plantation in Cameroon: progress or a disaster waiting to happen?

by Chido Makunike

Cameroon's location in the heart of the central African tropics makes it ideal for palm oil cultivation. Not surprisingly, the new rush by foreign investors for African agricultural land has not left fertile, lush Cameroon unaffected.

An excellent July 18 Reuters special report  highlights some, but far from all, of the reasons the new wave of foreign investments in African farm land are so controversial.

World demand for palm oil has doubled since 2000, we are told, and farming it in the traditional Asian growing countries (Indonesia, Malaysia) has increased challenges and costs. So investors are increasingly looking to central Africa.

Herakles Farms, owned by New York venture-finance firm Herakles Capital, is one of many investors with plans for huge palm oil holdings in Cameroon. As with all such investments, they promise Cameroonians 'steady work, roads and health care.'  

But not everyone is jumping up with joy at the Herakles investment. The concerns expressed are now familiar to anyone who has kept up with the land investment rush in recent years. There are allegations of traditional and government leaders doing shady deals behind the backs of the people they lead, fears of displacement and loss of livelihood; and there is also scepticism about the various benefits promised. Will the jobs and other social benefits promised be equal to or exceed the resource-mining, the permanent changes to the society? Without details (and monitoring) of the promised 'steady work, roads and healthcare,' it is impossible to say. 

Herakles is also accused of being under-handed in various ways in how it solicited local community input about its investment plans.


The article depressingly shows that despite years of heated debate about the pros and cons of these large-scale farming investments, very few of the main reasons for conflict have been dealt with by governments or investors.

For the investors, doing business with strong-arm governments that have little regard for the opinions of their people buys them a sort of 'stability' in often socio-politically volatile investing environments. Yet the times have changed to a more open, informed era in which it is no longer quite as easy as before to repress people with complete impunity. Even where government guns can keep a sullen, unhappy population under control, for investors there is now a considerable potential financial and reputational cost to being seen to be in bed with governments that neither respect nor represent their people well.

One fear expressed by some of the locals is that the proposed new Herakles palm oil plantation ("over 60,000 hectares of land - 10 times the size of Manhattan") will remove from community use one of the few remaining areas suitable for viable food cropping. Will 20, 30 or 40 years of mostly low-wage 'steady work' compensate for this kind of loss?

Speaking of steady wage-labour, which are the kind of low-range jobs that will be mostly on offer, it is a toss up whether such jobs mean an overall improvement in the livelihoods of the workers concerned, and of the communities. When the workers have these tenuous low-wage jobs as well as access to their traditional farmlands for the rest of their families to continue to work, it could be argued that the long-term security and earnings synergy of the  two income streams does indeed lead to greater security.

The lack of much of a cash economy in remote, poorly developed rural areas often wins the day in the argument over whether to allow/welcome investments such as that proposed by Herakles. The attitude is 'any jobs/steady income is better than subsistence farming.'  But if an extended family is giving up their ancestral land (the source of food security, cultural grounding, 'belonging,' independence, etc) for one or a handful of its members to have wages, the net gain is highly debatable.

But a huge investment such as that proposed by Herakles will act as an anchor for other kinds of investment in the area, won't it, increasing job opportunities and general economic prospects, won't it? Not necessarily, and certainly not automatically. In the absence of a dedicated plan to lure accompanying services to the area, those 'new opportunities' that will spring up on their own are likely to be brothels, bars and so forth. Single large agricultural or mining investors that come to dominate an area have proven this general rule all over Africa, and many places elsewhere.

When the large extractive investor pulls out for whatever reason, even  after a decades-long presence, there is often pitifully no long term 'development' left behind. Where there hasn't been a long-term plan between the area-dominant investor and the government, not only does the 'steady work' evaporate, so do the means/resources to keep the local school and clinic running. In addition, the environmental mess and the social and cultural dislocation is often such that the community can no longer simply resort to their previous subsistence agricultural existence. 

This is the reality of many similar investments all over Africa. One would have hoped that all these previous experiences would inform the discussion between Herakles and the Cameroonian government, but there is little indication that this is in fact the case, at least from reading the Reuters article.

The main investment driver's stated motivations are fascinating to hear.   
Bruce Wrobel, chief executive of Herakles Farms, is not the stereotypical culturally deaf and blind foreign investor who cares about nothing else as long as he has the minister or president's signature/protection.   

Reuters tell us that, "Since a 1999 visit to West Africa during the civil wars of Sierra Leone and Liberia, Wrobel's aim has been to mix business with philanthropy in order to assist the continent." 

Wrobel's do-gooder credentials are further bolstered by how he 'helped cut telephone costs for millions of East Africans, he says, via his fiber-optic cable joint venture Seacom. A hydro plant run by his Sithe Global Power company in Uganda has reduced power blackouts there.'

But all this impressive 'helping' that he has done was in the course of doing business for profit, which is fine, even good; certainly much better than the unsustainable, unsuccessful brand of aid-based do-goodism that has been inflicted on Africa for decades now. Where governments are alert and responsive to their people's needs, for-profit investment certainly has much more potential to be harnessed into long-term development than aid-based 'projects.'

Strangely, Wrobel out seems to be conflicted about whether he wants to do ethical for-profit business in Cameroon, or whether he is primarily going there is a Peace Corp worker.    

Listen to this mushy mumbo jumbo from Wrobel: "Our big concern is that over a relatively short period of time there will be no way for the African consumer to compete with the Chinese and the Indian buyer. That could lead to some of the types of instability and food riots that we saw a few years back."

Wrobel may well be a genuinely good guy who is sincere in his do-gooder rhetoric. But part of the history of the foreign exploitation of Africa over the last 100 years or so is that very often, the exploiters have claimed to be motivated by pity for Africans. It is tired, it is old, and it is increasingly met with suspicion.

If Wrobel really wants to show a new model of ethical farming investment at a time of growing scepticism, the best way he can do so is by practically showing that his Cameroonian palm oil venture has thought about and is addressing the many doubts and worries about such enterprises.  

 African Agriculture

 

New bean varieties released in Cameroon

The Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) in Cameroon, have released seven new improved bean varieties onto the market.

Among the traits the various varieties carry are disease resistance, ability to tolerate heavy rains as well as suitability to different cultivation altitudes and planting seasons. They also have different maturity durations. Among them are the “bushy” bean types which grow at ground level, and climbing beans, which can grow up to 1.5m high supported on stakes.

Cameroon is the main bean producer and exporter in the region. Its rural households consume 40% of beans produced, with the rest going to urban markets and supplying all of the country’s neighbors. The country’s area under bean production has increased from 78,000 ha (1985-87) to 231,000 ha (2005-7), while average production rose from 53,000 tonnes (1985-87) to 202, 000 tonnes (2005-7).

By working with bean researchers from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and those in eastern and southern Africa, Cameroon’s scientists were able to test and identify the improved seven bean varieties in a relatively short period of time; three to four years. If they had gone through the normal variety selection and breeding process, this process would have taken twice as long.

A number of bean varieties found in West and Central Africa have interesting traits that potentially could also benefit eastern and southern Africa.

The Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) is composed of a number of national and international research organizations to share information and experiences.

African Agriculture

Cameroon halfway to 500,000 tons per year banana export target

Cameroon’s banana sector currently exports 247,210 tons of bananas to the Europe per year, but aims to double that quantity ‘by 2013.’

The president of the banana producers’ union listed some of the challenges to achieving the ambitious target: liberalization of the European banana market that has increased competition from South American producers and reduced some of the protections for producers from the ACP (African Caribbean Pacific region). The high cost of

transportation due to fuel price rises is also having an impact as is the Euro-Dollar exchange rate, lack of portable water, lack of suitable land required for expansion and poor road infrastructure are others.

Fresh Plaza

Cameroon cocoa price rises on tight supplies

Farmgate cocoa prices in Cameroon's main cocoa growing regions rose slightly in February compared with the previous month on tight supplies as the main crop harvest tailed off, farmers said on February 15.

Farmers said prices rose to 1,000 CFA francs per kg in Kumba and Bafia, the main trading centres in the South-West and Centre regions, from 950 CFA francs/kg and 925 CFA francs/kg in January respectively.

"The increase is good news for the farmers, many of whom will see their output reduced by pest attacks this year," said Emmanuel Nnogo Akolo who farms near Emana, about 70 km north of the capital Yaounde.

Akolo said earlier than expected rainfall in the past week has raised hopes of a better mid-crop harvest. A long dry spell coupled with insect attacks on plantations is threatening output in the world's fifth largest cocoa producer, which grew a record 240,000 tonnes in 2010/11.

Cameroon's Cocoa Development Company (SODECAO) expecting production to rise to 250,000 tonnes in 2011/12.

Cameroon's cocoa season runs from August to July with the main harvest taking place between October to February, while a smaller mid crop is harvested from May to July. The Centre and South-West account for 80 percent of Cameroon's output.

Reuters

BioPalm plantation will lead to destruction of communities in Cameroon

The government of Cameroon has signed a MoU for the creation of a 200,000 ha palm oil plantation by BioPalm Energy Ltd (a subsidiary of the Singapore-based SIVA Group) in Ocean province, Cameroon. This project was launched on Wednesday 24th August 2011 – despite the indigenous Bagyeli people opposing the decision to allocate their customary lands to the BioPalm plantation.

Recent fieldwork by Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) has found that neither the project nor the state has secured the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the Bagyeli, as required by the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Rights, which Cameroon has ratified.

To establish the plantation, native trees will be cut down and replaced with a monoculture of oil palms, making hunting and fishing in these areas impossible. The Bagyeli mostly depend on hunting, fishing and collecting forest products for their livelihoods, regularly going for several days deep into the forest. They also use the forest for traditional medicine. It is clear that the plantation will be the end of their way of life.

The Bagyeli communities that FPP visited said that “the plantation is a way to make the Bagyeli disappear.” As well as making their traditional livelihoods impossible the plantation will also lead to the erosion and loss of their culture by preventing transmission of their forest knowledge. They asked, “How will we survive?” as several of their villages are even located within the planned plantation. It is unclear how the project plans to deal with them.
The project does not plan to provide any compensation for indigenous peoples and other local communities (Bagyeli and others). Communities have merely been informed that a 4km-wide strip along the road will be left to them for all their activities. Some of the other local communities are divided, as some are attracted to the project by the promise of “development,” such as schools, health centres and a good road that the government has failed to provide so far.

They are also hoping to benefit from employment in the company.

Nevertheless, many of these promised benefits are unlikely to materialise or to be short-lived as such concessions tend to employ people from much further afield, and any services that they establish need sustained investment in human resources. Moreover, the Bagyeli are already marginalized by dominant local communities, thus they are unlikely to see even short-term benefit from social schemes, employment or secure land for farming.

The felling of timber in the forest and the planting of palm trees has not yet begun. There is still an opportunity for the government to fulfill its role towards communities and respect its international obligations.

ForestPeoples.org  

Singapore group in $1.9 billion Cameroon palm oil deal

Biopalm Energy, a subsidiary of Singapore's Siva group will launch a 900 billion CFA Francs palm oil investment project in the south of Cameroon, an official of the country's agriculture ministry said on August 23.

The 200,000 hectares greenfield project will be jointly developed with the Central African nation's National Investment Corporation, the official said, requesting not to be named.

"The project will cost an estimated 900 billion CFA francs in foreign direct investments," the official said.

He said the mill would increase Cameroon's yearly palm oil production by 80,000 tonnes within the first five years of production, and would add about 30 billion CFA francs to crude-producing nation's yearly revenue.

Neither Siva Group nor Biopalm Energy could be reached for comments, however, Biopalm lists Cameroon and several other African countries including Ghana, Sierra Leone Ivory Coast and DR Congo as places it was in the process of acquiring greenfield land for palm oil production.

The company said on its website that the highly profitable world market for palm oil is projected to exceed 100 million tonnes by 2015.

Cameroon, which has seen its modest oil production decline to about 64,000 barrels per day from 185,000 bpd due to maturing fields, wants to explore other areas for foreign investments.

Its palm oil sector has attracted several industry majors. New York-based agricultural company Herakles Farms plans to develop some 60,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in the country, while Malaysia's Sime Darby is said to be considering a $2.5 billion plantation expansion deal.

Several environmental groups have however, raised concerns that the rapid expansion of agro-industries could not only threaten some of the Cameroon's unspoiled rainforest, but also the livelihood of the local population.

Australian environmental group Rainforest Rescue has launched an online petition aimed at pressuring the Cameroonian government to reconsider Herakles' planned project which they said could destroy plant and animal species, a charge the firm has rejected.

Reuters

Film looks at banana sector inequalities in Cameroon

by Nico Colombant

Disputed land rights, food insecurity and pollution caused by large-scale export-based agriculture are main themes of a Cameroonian-made movie currently being shown in the United States. Those important issues and more were presented at a Washington showing of the film called The Big Banana.

In the movie, a woman from a farming community in the Mungo region of Cameroon says villagers are not going to war against anyone. She says they are simply asking those who operate banana plantations to give back the land, which she says belongs to local villagers.

Film director Franck Hameni Bieleu says authorities prevented the film from being shown in Cameroon's capital Yaounde, which does not surprise him. He says filming was extremely difficult, and even led to his brief detention.

"I got arrested because the chief of that part of the village did not want me to film because he is being paid by the banana company. Everything around that area is controlled by the company," said Bieleu. "If you look at the congressman of the region, he is also the director of public relations of the company, the minister of trade of Cameroon is also president of the board of directors of the company."

Representatives for the company, Plantations du Haut Penja, which is French and American owned, refused to be interviewed for the film. They did not respond to a request for an interview for this report, nor did Cameroonian officials.

Bieleu is now taking his movie on a tour of the United States, where he says people are not aware of what is at stake when they buy a banana. He says large parts of fertile land in Cameroon are being used for banana exports, making it more and more difficult for the region's residents to grow their own food or to find food they are able to buy for themselves.

The use of pesticides is being blamed for polluting water and causing health problems. Villagers accuse the company of destroying their own fields to expand the banana plantations after obtaining land leases from the government. And with less local crops, food prices are going up for all Cameroonians.

Bieleu says the problem exists across Africa as agricultural land is increasingly becoming a prized commodity for foreign investors, to the detriment of local residents.

"When a company arrives and just shows the money, the big cash, what happens is the government just gives them the land that they want and these people cannot defend themselves because they do not have any rights on that land."

Bieleu says pre-colonial principles of traditional rights to land quickly disappear when confronted with government corruption.

An organizer of the film showing, Emira Woods, with the U.S-based Institute for Policy Studies, says she believes what many activists are calling the "land grab" is the biggest issue facing Africa this century.

"The structure of the problem has to be changed so that more, and particularly small and medium-sized farmers, have the opportunities to remain on their land. And at the moment because of threats from multinational corporations, from sovereign wealth funds, whether it is Saudi Arabia or Iran, the list is actually growing of countries that are looking to Africa as a source of access to land when arable land is becoming much more scarce on this planet," said Woods.

The organizers said they hoped Washington policy makers would be in the audience so they would better understand the need to work for the protection of local and diverse food production around the world, including Africa.

The movie was also recently shown in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, where Bieleu said some small farmers even cried, saying they had no idea this was happening to their counterparts in Africa.

VOA News

Cameroon: Cotton farmers dream of a better future

by Hohamadou Houmfa

The global financial crisis severely affected the cotton industry, but a recent rise in the price of cotton has given a renewed sense of hope to cotton producers in Cameroon.

... many farmers have a new faith in the industry. According to figures by Cameroon's National Confederation of Cotton Producers (CNPC-C), the number of cotton producers rose from 175,000 in 2010 to 200,000 today. Hundreds of producers have rejoined the sector because things are starting to get better.

"The price per kilo has improved. In 2009, we sold to Sodecoton at 180 Central African Francs (CFA). In 2010, the price rose above 200 francs. The price should reach 255 francs per kilo by the next season," explains Wangkagué Valentin, a producer from Doukoula in the far north of the country.

The government of Cameroon is also working to do its part to improve the situation. A bag of fertilizer was subsidized to the tune of 6,800 francs in 2009 and this amount rose by 4,400 francs in 2010.

This optimism is countered by several farmers and observers of the industry. There has in fact been a decrease in production. According to figures by Sodecoton, the production of cotton went from 146,000 tons during the agricultural season 2008-2009 to 110,000 tons during the 2009-2010 season. "The blame lies with the global financial crisis which hit the industry very hard," explains a spokesperson from Sodecoton.

Beyond the decline in the output that shows a nervousness within the sector, farmers want to see the price per kilo increase substantially. If the price per kilo is fixed at 200, this makes it much more attractive to unscrupulous buyers in neighbouring Nigeria. "The state must take steps to prevent the fraudulent sale of cotton to Nigeria. Instead of selling cotton to Sodecoton for 200 CFA per kilo, like us, some of our colleagues sell it to private buyers in Nigeria at 600 CFA per kilo. It's unfair," laments Abu Sali.

In effect, Nigerian businessmen are buying cotton at the price of gold. Yet the Cameroonian farmers are virtually forced to sell their produce to Sodecoton, as each year they receive a grant from the Society to help start their businesses. This policy has been criticized by some producers.

"Sodecoton helps us to acquire products and tools. It's good. Although, the employees of the society are well paid and live much better than us the producers. It is a situation that frustrates us and needs to be reviewed," pleads one producer.

According to official statistics, Sodecoton made a profit of 2.8 billion CFA. This is much to the frustration of the producers who are now hoping the price per kilo will be increased.

Radio Netherlands

Cameroon’s agriculture at crossroads

by Divine Ntaryike Jr

Cameroon’s dependence on food imports has skyrocketed over the last three decades. The Ministry of Finance says last year alone, the country spent about $1.1 million on imports of rice, fish, flour, sugar and other products. That’s about five percent of the national budget.

Agricultural specialists attribute the decline to low levels of investment in agriculture and in rural areas in general. Eighty percent of the population is composed of rural dwellers whose main occupation is farming.
But the government allocates less than 2.5 percent of the national budget to rural development. As a result of the neglect, roads from farms to markets are crumbling, making the distribution and marketing of food nearly impossible.

The agricultural sector is also plagued by the high cost of inputs like seeds and fertilizers, a lack of conservation infrastructure, such as warehouses to stock harvests before the market, and outdated farming practices that limit productivity. For urban consumers, it’s cheaper to buy imports than to buy locally grown foods.

It has not always been this way. In the 1970s and ‘80s, Cameroon produced enough food to feed itself and to export. That changed when an economic crisis began in 1986. The emphasis on agriculture dropped as the demand for oil increased.

Prices for exports slumped on the world market. Government subsidies to farmers evaporated and agricultural development programs collapsed. Farmers looked elsewhere for sources of income and poverty increased in the rural areas, with large numbers of people relying on foreign food aid.

In February 2008, thousands of hungry Cameroonians poured into the streets in growing unrest. Government statistics reported 40 dead, but civil society activists said some 140 protesters were killed in the riots that swept across the country. The government reacted by announcing a $1 million to improve food production in two years.

But three years later, critics say not much has changed. Food prices remain beyond the reach of average Cameroonians and once again, tension is on the rise.

Experts say the entire agricultural system is in urgent need of an overhaul. Professor Jacob Ngeve Ebua is general manager of the Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, IRAD. He says Cameroon is utilizing only 12 percent of the arable land for food crop production.

In January, President Paul Biya announced a new plan boost food production. The president is seeking reelection this year after nearly 30 years in power. Among the measures are the creation of a specialized farmers’ bank to provide cheap loans, an agency to monitor food availability and a tractor assembly plant.

But critics say the measures do not go far enough. According to Albert Njonga an agronomist and leader of the 11,000-member Association for the Defense of Collective Interests, (ACDIC), all logical solutions should center on a 2007 World Bank report.

He says it prescribes agriculture as a launching pad for sustained economic growth through increased direct subsidies to the small farmers in rural communities. The most productive farmers would get the biggest shares.

"The poor farmers do not trust banks," he said, "some of which have recently collapsed on short notice. They also lack the capital to purchase tractors, subsidies for costly fertilizers and pesticides will significantly encourage production.”

As food prices spike worldwide, experts warn Cameroon’s heavy dependence on imports makes it increasingly vulnerable to external price fluctuations that could trigger another wave of unrest by hungry people.










http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/west/Cameroons-Agriculture-at-Crossroads-125071684.html

US company to invest in palm oil plantations in Cameroon, Ghana

Herakles Farms, a New York-based agriculture company, is planning two commercial-scale sustainable palm oil plantations in Cameroon and Ghana, providing over 10,000 jobs to local people.

Herakles Farms began working on the project in 2009, when it acquired 100 percent ownership in SG Sustainable Oils from Sithe Global. The plantations will follow the highest environmental and social standards, complying fully with Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Principles & Criteria. RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from the palm oil industry to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.

"We are very excited.... the need for local supply is significant. In 2009, Africa imported approximately 4 million tons of palm oil, primarily from Indonesia and Malaysia. Currently, the continent's average per capita consumption of oils and fats is only about 11 kg, compared to the world average of about 24 kg," said Bruce Wrobel, CEO of Herakles Farms. "In addition to reducing dependence on imports for this food staple, the plantations will deliver a whole range of benefits for the local population, including jobs, housing, health clinics, clean water and schools, while safeguarding the incredible biodiversity of this part of the world."

Herakles Farms

Cameroon to boost cocoa output

by Pius Lukong

Cameroon plans to boost cocoa production to as much as 300,000 metric tons a year by 2015, up from about 219,000 tons, according to ...a government official.

Cameroon, the world’s fifth-biggest producer of the crop after Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria, plans to boost output by training farmers to maintain and clean farms to ensure parasites and old pods, which can cause disease, are removed

Improved farming conditions will increase yields from 300 to 500 kilograms (661 to 1,102 pounds) a hectare (2.47 acres) to 800 to 2,000 kilograms. Cocoa farms in the Central African nation at present cover 450,000 hectares of land produced by 600,000 farmers, the official said.

Cameroon has produced 219,000 tons of cocoa this year since the season started in August, according to the Cocoa and Coffee Board. The country’s output was 198,000 tons in 2009-10.


full article at Businessweek

Cameroon riot police block farmer protest

May 31 to prevent a march of protest over bad roads and low state support for agriculture.

Frustrations have been on the rise in the central African oil and cocoa producer country ahead of an October presidential election, with critics of long-serving President Paul Biya disappointed by what they call a slow pace of reform.

Thirty-seven farmers were detained by police while several hundred others were blocked from reaching a planned rallying point in Yaounde, said Bernard Njonga, head of Citizens' Association for the Defence of Collective Interests and organiser of the march.

Cameroon officials were not available to comment but a police commander on the scene said his forces had been ordered to prevent the demonstration to ensure public order.

"I am sorry the government does not want to listen to us because we did not come here to create trouble," said Simeon Fandio, who farms near Bafoussam in the West region. "All we wanted was that they should hear our cry."

Farmers have long complained about the poor state of Cameroon's roads -- unpaved and deeply pitted by seasonal rains -- as an obstacle to marketing their produce.

"What we want is farm-to-market roads, because much of the food crops we produce are perishable," said Valentin Amba Miasse, who headed a group of 25 demonstrators from Mboma village near Abong-Mbang, 160 km (100 miles) southeast of Yaounde. He added that the farmers were also seeking subsidised fertilizers and access to high-yield seeds.

Cameroon is the world's fifth-largest cocoa grower, and one of Africa's oldest oil producers.

Reuters

Leasing of land to foreign investors unpopular in Cameroon

Rural people in several parts of Cameroon are protesting a government policy that allows the government to sell or lease vast parcels of arable land to foreign investors.


Many Cameroonians are unhappy about the leasing of arable land to foreign investors.

Supporters say the deals could bring much-needed investment to agriculture. But critics warn that the policy could lead to more subsistence farmers losing their lands – their only source of food and income.

A traditional chief in Bafang – some 200 kilometres north of Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala – decided to lease a parcel of farmland about 15 kilometers square to an Italian NGO. But the plan backfired. Local inhabitants call the deal “unilateral” and “shady” and say that it will eventually deprive them of their farmlands without compensation.

The Bafang incident is not isolated. Similar tensions have arisen in other parts of the country – for instance, in Nanga Eboko, northeast of the capital, Yaounde; and Kribi, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. In those areas Chinese agro-industry companies are gaining access to massive swaths of arable land. Elsewhere, irate groups have set up roadblocks to demand transparency in the land sales, which are usually conducted behind closed doors.

Government supporters welcome the initiative, saying most farmers lack the means to mechanize agriculture on a large scale. In Cameroon, over 72,000 square kilometers are available for farming, yet only a fraction is being cultivated.

A man who refused to reveal his identity says the land deals could attract investment to rural areas. He says they represent a huge contribution to the fight against poverty because the incoming multinationals will set up industrial-scale plantations, create new jobs and ensure food security in the country by selling their produce on the national market. He says the policy will reduce heavy imports of rice and other foodstuffs.

But critics say the farmland deals are generating fear and a nationalist backlash.

In Nanga-Eboko, a Chinese multinational called Sino-Cam has obtained a 99-year lease on a huge tract of productive land. The company specialises in the production and commercialisation of rice, maize, cassava, fruits and vegetables. Fuming inhabitants say they had been told the company would hire local employees and sell its produce on the domestic market.

But a lobby on behalf of local farmers, The Association for the Defense of Collective Interests (ACDIC), says all of the company’s permanent staffers are Chinese. It says young Cameroonians recruited as temporary employees earn US$2, working 10 hours per day to grow food that is exported.

Guy Parfait Songue is a political science lecturer at the University of Douala. He’s the main speaker at ongoing public debates on the new scramble for African farmlands organised by ACDIC. He says the shortsighted policy will eventually plunge the country into chaos. “Our government needs to see exactly what our population needs in the future. Our generation does not yet see the problem but I think that the next generation [will face very serious problems] that we need to prevent now,” he says.

The sale of farmland to foreigners, a fairly recent practice, is not specific to Cameroon. Observers say it’s rooted in the global food crisis of 2007 and 2008 that sparked sharp hikes in food prices worldwide. The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation says these sales increased because of pressure from growing populations, particularly in Asia, and because of climate change.

As a result Tanzania, Mali, Zambia, Ethiopia, the DRC, Sudan, Kenya, Madagascar and many other countries with cheap and under-utilised fertile farmland are attracting investors from wealthier countries like China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The African Union warns that the huge land deals can exploit Africans, who have a weaker bargaining position.

The ACDIC says the land transactions are contracted in secret and include a neo-colonial element. Jacob Kotcho is the association’s permanent secretary.

He says Cameroon needs to make sure that its populations will gain in these contracts. “We’re not against the contracts, but we want to make sure that their contents preserve our development and are guided by specific targets of our development.”

ACDIC is calling on the government to rethink its agriculture development policies designed to attract nationals, especially by encouraging subsidies for local investment and easing access to loans. Nearly 70% of Cameroon’s 18 million people depend on farming for their food and income.

The association says the demonstrations against the land deals in Cameroon are a reminder of events in Madagascar. A popular uprising there overthrew the former government, which had planned to cede over one million hectares of arable land led to foreign interests.

VOA

Cameroon cocoa exports up

Cocoa bean exports from Cameroon reached 184,090 tonnes by the end of February, up 22 percent on the same period last year, according to data from two industry organisations in the world's fifth largest grower.

Exports for February, the seventh month of the season, reached 10,086 tonnes, down from 25,031 tonnes in January but up from 9,246 tonnes in the same month last year, according to the Cocoa and Coffee Interprofessional Board (CCIB) and the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB) on Wednesday.

For the first time ever, Gic Proba was the leading exporter of the month with 1,505 tonnes, followed by Camaco with 1,455 tonnes, down from 3,010 tonnes the previous month.

No. 3 exporter was Ets Ndongo Essomba with 1,254 tonnes, down from 2,408 tonnes in January.

Cameroon's cocoa season runs from August 1 to July 31, with the main harvest period from October to February.

The South-West and Centre regions account for 40 percent each of total cocoa beans output in the country, while the remainder come from the South and East regions.

The country hit a production record of 205,000 tonnes of cocoa beans in 2008/09, before slowing to 197,000 tonnes in 2009/2010. But experts and farmers now foresee production rising to over 200,000 tonnes in 2010/11.




Reuters

Discrimination and corruption taint state aid to farmers in Cameroon

by Beaugas-Orain Djoyum

Some of Cameroon’s state aid to farmers does not reach those it is meant for.

The agriculture ministry last April handed 20 million francs CFA to 20 young representatives of Community Farmers Groups (CFG) in the country’s central region. Some of those had not even started work on a farm.

Among them was Armand Ondobo Mbida, 19, from Mefou Akono. He received a cheque of one million francs CFA for the New Generation CFG, although he is a mere member of the group and does not run it.

Ondobo Mbida works as a technician apprentice in a Yaounde electronic appliances repair workshop.

Yet, the government says that farmers must be actually producing before claiming state aid. “We do not support those who intend to produce. We help those who are producing, ” said Martial Nkoulou, the coordinator of the state plan to help young farmers.

Asked what he intended to do with the money, Ondobo Mbida said: “I’m going to start working and encourage (CFG) colleagues to follow suit…I’ll plant cocoa, rice and cassava.”

The New Generation CFG was not created by young people but by Helene Missili, aka Mama Douala, a woman believed to have close contacts with ministry officials who can help in obtaining subsidies.

Ondobo Mbida regards her as his mother, and says she and her husband actually run the CFG. But a visit to Ngoumou, a few dozen kms (miles) from Yaounde, exposed doubts about the very existence of the CFG. 

”I do not know the CFG called New Generation,” said Sebastien Felix Noah, the head of farmers, breeders and craftsmen organisations in Ngoumou. ”We have about 35 active CFGs. Many are not working. Some CFG were created when subsidies were mentioned. If there are no subsidies, they only exist in suitcases,” he said. He added he did not know either the Jca Nkong Agog CFG, from Mefou Akono, which also received one million CFA francs.

How CFGs are picked out for state aid and subsidy opportunities is not being clearly explained to genuine farmers, Felix Noah said.

One may suspect that only a small part of 116 million CFA francs to be distributed among Cameroon’s CFGs this year will effectively go to develop farming.

In August 2009, the National Anti-Corruption Committee accused 47 agriculture ministry officials of corruption and embezzlement. Among the charges was granting subsidies to fictitious CFGs.

Reuters