The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, MINADER, defended the 2015 draft budget at the National Assembly on November 29, 2014.

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Essimi Menye, has reminded members of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly under the chair of Hon. Rosette Ayayi Moutymbou that the agricultural sector is most significant for the national economy due to its great potential in generating growth.

Essimi Menye revealed that the sector is the first employer with close to 60 per cent of the active population. The Minister was speaking on Saturday November 28, 2014, as he pushed through for approval of his ministry's FCFA 108,692 billion budget for 2015; up from FCFA 98.3 billion in 2014.  

Essimi Menye in his presentation insisted that to better ensure success and facilitate the procurement of adequate decision-making tools, MINADER is committed to carrying out a general agricultural census. The last census dates back to 1984, and current data is obsolete for reliable planning. The expectations of the ministry for 2015 focus on improving agricultural value chain productivity and competitiveness.

This entails ensuring better production, harvesting, conservation, processing, marketing and market organisation and effective empowerment of the main stakeholders of the value chain. Actions are geared towards improved outputs, extension of farm sizes, regeneration of plantations and mastery of technical routes. The ministry intends to provide support to operators to help them face challenges that might impede progress. Modernizing rural and agricultural production infrastructure is also top on the ministry’s agenda.

Essimi Menye told the press after defending his draft budget that MINADER will focus on the production of high-yield seeds. “We are starting the development of cooperatives and our farmers will be trained to compete by discussing funding with banks,” adding that farm input and fertilizers will be distributed.