Over the years, these events have become routine, if only seen from the rather poor results obtained and, more so, by the growing army of hungry people in the world and the abject living conditions in rural areas where women are the frontline actors.
For Cameroon, the two events are intertwined. In Cameroon, rural women produce most of the food that is eaten, not only in their immediate environment but also in the urban milieu. Could the lining up of these two commemoration in a successive sequence be a recognition of the undeniable role of rural women in the sustenance of food supply? Obviously yes in the Cameroonian context.
As usual, the events were marked by sporadic appearances by public officials in ribbon-cutting-like ceremonies, roundtable discussions on radio and TV, the distribution of cutlasses, hoes and the like to village farming groups. Radio and TV discussions may very well address the issues; but how much input and motivation has so far come from white-collar bureaucrats? Successive initiatives taken from air-conditioned rooms have shown their limits. And it was about time policy-makers get closer to the rural masses and lend a more attentive ear to their problems. The stridency in tone, as the rural women expressed their recriminations to reporters on the occasion of the World Day of the Rural Woman was virtually an avowal of their near-total neglect. Agricultural extension workers come around only sparingly and when they do, they go for cash crop farmers who usually have money to throw about.
In 1996, the Secretary General of the erstwhile Organisation of African Unity, Salim Ahmed Salim upon arrival in Douala, decided to do the Douala-Yaounde trip by road. Dr Salim’s assessment of Cameroon’s agricultural potential was only in hyperboles after observing the rich and varied vegetation as well as the numerous rivers and streams between Douala Yaounde. The same can be said of virtually all the agro-ecological zones of the country which readily accept food crops adapted to the various zones.
It is therefore a scandal that we are unable to eat our fill. Many obstacles have been identified: many, difficult to overcome while others are easy to solve. Those for which colossal means are not required include the construction or repairs of farm-to-market roads, the provision of good seed material, easier access to financing for agricultural or stock-breeding projects, closer technical supervision of farmers and grazers. These few initiatives will take farmers out of their doldrums and guarantee food in sufficient quantity and quality for urban dwellers. These initiatives will keep hunger at bay. The more complicated issues of transformation, conservation, packaging, mechanisation and export can be examined more progressively. The urgent issue to address is hunger especially in the Far-North Region where repeated red signals appear.
