Dr Aboubakar Sarki said his ministry’s performance at the recent Agro pastoral Show was brilliant. The Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, MNEPIA, Dr Aboubakar Sarki has lauded the participation of his ministry at the recently concluded National Agro pastoral Show in Ebolowa, describing it as “brilliant and highly appreciated.”

Speaking at the Yaounde Conference Centre yesterday February 7 at the opening of the annual conference of central and regional officials of the ministry, the Minister noted with satisfaction that no less a personality than the Head of State, President Paul Biya had made the same appreciation of the efforts made by the ministry in the last years to improve livestock and fishery production.

In spite of the progress made, much still has to be done because of insufficient production, Dr Sarki said. This is the reason why the Head of State called for the putting in place of a new agricultural policy that would enable the livestock sub sector to also contribute to economic growth, job creation, improvement in food security, and poverty reduction, he explained.

Focus for now is on small scale farmers to enable them boost their production, the Minister explained. In order to achieve this goal, many projects have been initiated to enable them benefit, adding that local staff continue to provide technical backstopping to these farmers, he explained.

Commenting on his region’s performance at the Ebolowa National Agro pastoral Show, Dr Agharih Walters, MINEPIA Regional Delegate for North West, said the participation “was very successful and was the centre of attraction.” Of the 33 livestock and fisheries farmers presented, 19 won prizes; with 12 being first and 7 second prizes respectively. He said the performance could have been better if the show had held in December 2010, explaining that some exhibits that could not wait till January 2011 had to be replaced with lesser quality ones.

The East Region on the other hand did not do so well at the show with the 18 farmers presented, winning 6 prizes. Regional Delegate, Dr Abadomé François said the performance was not too bad, given the limited potentials of the participating farmers. Though the region has great potentials in livestock production, the abundance of bush meat tends to serve as a great source of distraction, he said. He said much has to be done to encourage the people to go into livestock production.

The annual conference continues today with lectures by departmental and project heads, and evaluation of last year’s activities. The meeting ends tomorrow with the presentation of New Year wishes by staff, partners and stakeholders to the minister.