About 97% of farmers in Cameroon are faced with challenges in food production, which have led to increase in food crisis in Cameroon.
Some of these challenges include;
(SUSTAIN AFRIC is trying to raise funds to support orphans who are going through hunger and starvation, you can support this course by click the link below to donate, dollar is not too small to save a life.
1) Limited Capital:
Presently with the on-going North West (NW) and South West (SW) crisis in Cameroon, farmers find it difficult to access farmer lands due to insecurity, and also in acquiring machines or tools needed for farming.
2) Climate change:
Climate change has drastically decreased the rate of agriculture in some part of Cameroon as recent flooding and drought has increased. This was seen in a situation where a team from Sustain Afric visited a farmland in Ngombe in Douala, where a farm of plantain had been ravished by heat stress.
Also, other areas in Douala, Limbe, and Yaounde of recent times have experienced flooding which have drastically affected the productivity of farms.
In addition, Lake Chad has occasionally been facing drought, inhibiting irrigation practices and water availability for cattle’s.
3) Pest and disease:
As climate change increases so is the on-set of pest and diseases and also a lot resistance.
More so with the wrong application of chemicals on farmlands by farmers, pest and diseases has slow adapted to such chemicals making it difficult to easily eradicate them.
Also with the increase in prices of chemicals due to the Russia-Ukraine war, farmers find it difficult affording chemicals like fungicides, nematicides, bactericide, and pesticides.
4) Poor farm to market roads:
This has been a key problem farmers in Cameroon are faced with. Especially famers hit by the North West and South West conflict, were road construction have not been going on. In areas like Mbagem, Lum, etc where there is production of plantains and cocoa. Famers find it difficult transporting their produce to markets due to poor road network.
5) Lack of storage facilities:
This has always been a challenge to farmers due to lack of warehouses. 99.99% of farms in rural communities are lacking warehouses for their farm produce, and this is the heart of were food production is taking place. Lack of these conducive warehouses for farm produce has greatly affected supply of food related to demand in Cameroon, most especially perishable food crops such as vegetables and fruits.
6) Price fluctuation:
This has been a difficult occurrence for farmers to swallow. About 90% of prices of food stuffs in Cameroon keeps fluctuating year after year, making it difficult for farmers to predict their future profits and invest more.
In Buea it was seen in 2017 where the price for a basket of tomatoes moved from 4,000FCFA, 6,000FCFA to about 750FCFA. Farmers experienced great losses.
7) Adopting to new technologies:
Farmers in Cameroon most especially rural farmers are seen not to be innovative; they don’t like to engage in new technologies. With that, a lot of new strategies in marketing their products such as e-commerce is slowly being accepted by this farmers. An example of this can be seen with the partnership between Sustain Afric and eFarm which is an e-commerce platform were farmers can list their farm produce and sell. It is slowly being accepted because of a lot of superstition and trust issues.
8) Satisfying customers urgent needs:
This is not possible because farmers do not produce all the time, they produce based on their resources.
During the dry season, a lot of farmers do not engage in farming and so when customer demands are high farmers will not be available to meet up demand. Also a lot of rural farmers cannot produce in large scale, making it difficult for them to satisfy the need of customers.
This can be seen situations were companies come and are in demand of huge quantities of produce in which farmers cannot supply. And also as they find it difficult joining cooperatives to work together, they find it difficult to meet up with companies/customers demand.
9) Marketing:
As the world is growing digital, some farmers in Cameroon most especially rural farmers are slowly engaging in digital marketing which inhibits them from reaching ready markets for their produce. Some of these markets available in Cameroon are not well designed and constructed, making it very uncomfortable to farmers to accept.
I believe with increase in globalization, farmers need to be trained more on how to use social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook on how to advertise their products and sell.
10) Meeting rising demand for more food of higher quality:
It is very difficult for farmers to meet up with the high demand of food most especially now with the increase in globalization were land is very scarce, inputs are high and they tend to produce less especially in a time like this were global warming and climate change is very high.
Higher quality is also a challenge because farmers don’t know how to use pesticides and fertilizers properly. They use them in excess and at the end the quality of the food is usually not the best.
Some of the solutions SUSTAIN AFRIC has been able to bring;
With the aim and objectives SUSTAIN AFRIC has alongside implementing steps and strategies put in place to solve some if not all problems affecting the agricultural sector in Cameroon.
1. Meeting rising demand for more food of higher quality:
SUSTAIN AFRIC to this problem, has carried out a lot of consultancy. Meeting farmers and giving them profitable ways on how to apply pesticides and fertilizers to their crops so that farmers end up producing more quantities and quality farm produce to meet up with market demands.
SUSTAIN AFRIC is trying to raise funds to support orphans who are going through hunger and starvation, you can support this course by click the link below to donate, dollar is not too small to save a life.
2. Marketing:
In partnership with eFarm, an online selling platform mainly for agricultural produce or items, Sustain Afric provide marketing skills on how and where to get customers for their farm produce with the use of eFarm and other trusted selling platform like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
3. Adopting to new technologies:
With skilled engineers of Sustain Afric, farmers trained are happy of new techniques in carrying out farming. Sutain Afric has trained 1000 plus farmers and youths on profitable technologies in farming.
The soaring level of starvation in most part of Africa everyday keeps the organization worried. We still and won’t stop educating more interested persons on RIGHT FARMING to bring hunger to zero.
SUSTAIN AFRIC is trying to raise funds to support orphans who are going through hunger and starvation, you can support this course by click the link below to donate, dollar is not too small to save a life.
4. Price fluctuation:
Through consultancy, Sustain Afric gives also to farmers advises on what they could or should cultivate so that the farmers make more profits when markets prices of their farm produce are strategically predicted by Sustain Afric to increase.
5. Pest and diseases:
As solution providers in the agricultural sector, Sustain Afric offers to farmers the best method of fighting against pest and diseases. Farmers most especially rural farmers of Cameroon are educated on proper use of pesticides and fungicides to better manage food loss.
SUSTAIN AFRIC is trying to raise funds to support orphans who are going through hunger and starvation, you can support this course by click the link below to donate, dollar is not too small to save a life.
6. Climate change:
Majority of farmers in Cameroon are yet to know of how climate change is affecting the agricultural sector of this country Cameroon. As an organization Sustain Afric, farmers are educated on how to conserve the soil; reduction in continual bush burning that could expose the soil to direct sunlight, killing microorganisms needed for soil mixing and causing excessive evaporation leading to drought.
7. Implementation of projects:
To better fight the food crisis in Cameroon and Africa, we offer project services to clients wants to invest in agriculture. Doing so, we increase food production in Cameroon.
SUSTAIN AFRIC is trying to raise funds to support orphans who are going through hunger and starvation, you can support this course by click the link below to donate, dollar is not too small to save a life.
SUSTAIN AFRIC is trying to raise funds to support orphans who are going through hunger and starvation, you can support this course by click the link below to donate, dollar is not too small to save a life.
8. Dependency reduction:
With the recent war between Ukraine and Russia, price of wheat flour and products in Cameroon has greatly been affected, keeping the mouths of the majority away from wheat flour and its produce.
As an organization, we make use of available resources in Cameroon to break the dependent chain on other countries. Doing so we engaged in using cassava for cassava flour, plantain for plantain flour, sweet potato for sweet potato flour.
These resources are in huge quantities in Cameroon and by producing flour out of them, we make known to the public not to starve because of wheat flour and use the available natural resources in our country Cameroon.
We look forward in training the population of these flour productions.
Conclusion
As an organization, we want to ensure farmers don't only make profits but farm using Sustainable farming practices . We are here for Cameroon, Africa and the World.
We will not stop Educating and Empowering the people. Thank you.
SUSTAIN AFRIC is trying to raise funds to support orphans who are going through hunger and starvation, you can support this course by click the link below to donate, dollar is not too small to save a life.