The Ebolowa Agric show opened floodgates to the implementation of modern agriculture in the country.

The Head of State in his speech at the show village stated in categorical tone, the urgency of undertaking certain reforms in a bid to enhance modern agriculture and boost production. Modern agriculture in this sense entails abandoning rudimentary tools and taking up modern equipment as well as extensive and intensive use of in-puts.

The agric sector in Cameroon is characterised by insufficient financing, lack of plant material and high yield livestock, difficult access to land, weak capacity building of farmers, mediocre land productivity, alarming post-harvest loss, remote production zones, bureaucratic payment process, slow contract award process and several other hurdles. All these constraints have not keep the country’s number one personality indifferent especially as the consequences remain telling. One of such and this is really disturbing, is the increasing importation of foodstuff in order to cover dwindling production. This particularly concerns food items such as corn, rice, plantain, fish, and beef. Official statistics indicate discouraging trends whereby importation of these crops increased by 40 percent between 2004 and 2009 from 850,000 to 1,195,000 metric tonnes. This took a colossal sum of between FCFA 167 to 390 billion.

From every indication, the story could be different beginning September, 23 when members of the steering committee of the Agropole programme created by the Prime Minister in application of the Head of State’s modern agriculture programme will meet to concretise its implantation. In effect, the Agropole programme is an emergency by virtue of its obligations. The peculiarity of the programme hinges on the fact that it involves the private sector both household and industrial agriculture. It will focus on production, processing and marketing in plant, animal and fishery sub sectors.

Lofty as the programme may appear, it will certainly require a lot of commitment on the part of those who are charged with ensuring its success. As a reminder, it is important to note that this is not the first of such hope rekindling programmes. What difference this would make is the question actors in the agriculture sector must be asking with all pious hope.