Some 200 members of the Chamber of Agriculture, Fisheries, Livestock and Forests of Cameroon (CAPEF) are gearing up to surmount the challenge of food insufficiency and security that stares the country in the face. This follows the validation of their mandates during the revived Chamber’s first plenary session in Yaounde yesterday October 13, 2010. It was chaired by the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jean Nkuete.
The Vice PM in his speech said the election of the 200-man team was a new dawn for the Chamber given the challenges agriculture faces and its pride of place in the country’s development agenda. The new team, he added, is charged with the responsibility of reviving the once vibrant institution that almost crumbled under the weight of the economic crisis of the 1980s. “Your election marks an important step in the revival of the chamber to ensure agricultural productivity as well as boost the development of the rural sector,” Jean Nkuete said. Like the Vice PM, other speakers said the members must work in synergy with stakeholders to save the country from the importation of food items, even those it has enormous potentials to produce in huge quantities.
The Secretary General of the Chamber, Dr. Nwana Bernard, qualified the 200 members comprising agriculture with 88 members, fisheries 24, livestock 44 and forestry and wildlife with 44 members, as farmers’ representatives. As such, they are supposed to defend the interest of farmers, protect them, represent the farmers in decision-making organisations and institutions, train the farmers on how to carryout their activities as well as represent them at national and international agricultural forums.
The novelty of the new team is its growth from 60 members in the yesteryears to 200 today and officials say it tells of the importance the Head of State attaches to agriculture in his development vision for the country. Attention is now focused on the President of the Republic to appoint the President of the Chamber after which the new team will effectively get to work.
