A six-man Argentine delegation visited IRAD on Sunday May 5th.
An Argentine delegation led by Marie Del Carmen arrived Cameroon yesterday May 5th with a pack full of experience to share with Cameroon in the domains of agriculture and livestock where they take the credit for using extremely efficient technology.
They had their first stopover at the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, IRAD, Yaounde where they paid tribute to Cameroon’s tropical productions like coffee and expressed their wish to tap from Cameroon’s experience. “Cameroon has good experience in tropical agriculture and we are good in cereal and livestock production. It is true Argentina is known for meat and football, but we are here for meat,” Marie Del Carmen joked in the presence of IRAD’s General Manager, Woin Noé. The Argentine delegation will sign accords with the ministries involved in the near future.
Earlier, IRAD’s Director of Scientific Research, Dr Daniel Achukwi projected a power point presentation highlighting the five ecological zones of Cameroon, indicating the main agricultural activities. In the five major research domains namely annual crops, perennial, production systems, livestock production/fisheries as well as forest, soil and environment, a team of 188 researchers and 550 support staff are responding to the worries of agricultural actors all over the country. With 11 big laboratories and 24 mini ones, IRAD has developed different varieties of food and cash crops-14 for maize, eight for cassava and cocoa, five for coffee and four for Irish potato among others. The research institute, according to the Director, has also developed fruit trees like plum, pear, mango and citrus to boost household incomes.
In addition to obtaining property rights for 17 crops and five cotton varieties, IRAD has also contributed in reducing post harvest losses and improving animal productivity and milk products to increase protein intake within the national territory. With prospects to become the leading institution for agricultural research in Sub-Saharan Africa, Cameroon has to exploit and adopt Argentine technologies in cereal and livestock production in order for the products to be affordable to all and also bridge the 50,000 metric-tonne beef shortfall imported yearly.
