Stakeholders in the agro-pastoral sector in the country are multiplying moves to ensure efficiency in managing activities of the sector with the view of bridging the chasm between production, consumption and the wellbeing of farmers. Meeting in Yaounde yesterday, steering committee members of a Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) and that of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries (MINEPIA) jointly-run project, “Support Programme for the improvement of the Performance of Rural Sector Administration, AMO”, in their 6^th steering committee meeting, said better management of the sector could help decision makers to know the exact situation and the policies to adopt. The meeting was meant to evaluate the path covered in 2010 and to draw up the plan of action for the ongoing year.

Addressing participants, the Secretary General of MINEPIA, Ouli Ndongo Monique, said the programme is of prime importance both to the government and farmers given the commitment to step up agro-pastoral production and reduce to the barest minimum importation of basic commodities that drain huge sums of money from the State. In a 2010 activity report presented at the meeting, it emerged that human and material resources witnessed a great boost last year. Participants agreed that statistics on agro-pastoral activities that were hitherto a nightmare are now available. This is thanks to the hundreds of capacity building workshops that were organised for the benefit of thousands of agro-pastoral researchers and controllers and the offer of computers to facilitate communication in the sector across the country. According to the Regional Delegate of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) for the North West, Nutoto Godfred Awa, the region has benefited a lot from the programme. “We have received modern communication equipment, the programme assisted us in the organisation of the Ebolowa National Agro-pastoral Show, the capacities of field staff have been built, formerly we had constraints in collecting data but now, it has improved”, he said. But Mr Nutoto, like others, advocates the provision of movable equipment like vehicles, for proper execution and supervision of field activities. AMO, already three years on, seeks to build the capacities of officials of MINADER and MINEPIA for the implementation and monitoring of the execution of the Rural Sector Development Strategy (SDSR).